


Stranded

by vulpinelucis (CanineKitten)



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angst with a Happy Ending, FFXV kinkmeme, Little Mermaid Elements, M/M, merman noctis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-05-21 01:36:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 24,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14905992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanineKitten/pseuds/vulpinelucis
Summary: Noctis is supposed to keep away from the humans. It is crucial that the existence of his people is kept a secret. So when he one day saves a man from the top-world from drowning, he breaks not one, but two of his fathers strictest rules: not to venture up to the surface, and not to be seen. But can he stay away from this enticing world now that he's seen what it's like to finally interact with it? And can he get the handsome blond man that he saved out of his head?~The Little Mermaid AU~





	1. Shallow Water

**Author's Note:**

> Kinkmeme fill: "noct is the sea king regis's only son, the pearl of the 7 seas, with eyes clear-blue like water and a tale as black as the deepest ocean trench, treasured for his beauty and kindness and compassion etc, and very sheltered.  
> he falls in love with a human after rescuing them from near-drowning, goes to the sea witch ardyn in order to become human. ardyn has his own designs against the sea king and sees this as an opportunity to get back at regis, etc."

Noctis liked to dwell by the surface, the place that most others of his kind stayed far away from. Technically, he was not allowed up there, but as soon as he got the chance to sneak away, he set course upward, out of the coral reef that housed his father’s kingdom. It was beautiful near the surface. The colors were stronger. Noctis had taken some time getting used to the brightness and the multitude of colors, but once he did he never regretted it. He loved to play among the fish and the seaweed on the wide banks of sand that covered the ocean floor so close to the surface. He stayed away from the area with the most human traffic, so that he didn't end up knocked over by a boat or some other human device.

He liked to search the waters close to human populations because they always dropped some interesting artifacts in the ocean. Noctis had some choice items in his room at home, items that he had told his father he'd found on the depths, but that he in truth had ventured to the surface for. What his father didn't know didn't hurt him. One of those items were 'tomes' - rectangular, heavy items of an unknown material that bore symbols in human language. The tomes never survived long underwater. They dissolved fast, so Noctis was always on the lookout for new ones.

On this particular day he ventured closer to the surface than usual. There was a bay that he liked especially well, one that seldom saw human activity. Noctis had for a long time dreamt of breaking the surface to see the upper world. But he was also scared to do it. He'd heard awful things about it; that it smelled, that it was noisy, that breathing was like swallowing needles. The colors were so strong, so sharp that they could blind you, and the 'air' was thin and heavy at the same time. It crushed you to the ground. It was impossible to swim up there. Noctis couldn't imagine how that would be like.

He wanted to feel this 'air'. His kind could technically breathe over water, they had lungs, but it was only rarely that they needed to be used, and never willingly.

Noctis lingered close to the surface. It was an overcast day. The bay was deserted. Some times humans came out there to swim, but Noctis had searched the entire area, and he hadn't see a single one of the weird, two-tailed humans. He swam in among a thick of sea weeds, where he could rest undisturbed, and stared up at the teal grey, quiet surface above.

'Today,' he thought. 'Today he would do it.'

But he didn't move.

He lingered, but he knew... he knew that he couldn't. It was too huge a step. What if he hated it? Or worse... what if he loved it?

A shadow caught his eye. A human, swimming above him with slow, deliberate strokes. A strong swimmer. Noctis watched the human pass and continue out towards the open sea. It moved farther and farther out, seemingly tireless. Noctis swam out of the seaweed and followed the human. He was curious to see where it was headed. Then he became worried. This human was heading right towards a rip current. Was it not aware? Noctis swam closer.

Turn around, he thought. It's dangerous for you. But he had no way of communicating this. Not without breaking the most sacred rule among the merpeople: never let the humans become aware of their existence. Never. Not even to save someone. It was not their job to babysit foolish humans.

The human stopped swimming. It looked like it was turning back. Perhaps it had noticed the danger. But it struggled to swim back to the shore. It had gotten caught in the current. Noctis had heard of it before; humans who drowned because they didn't know how to get out of the rip current. They couldn't breathe under water, not without some special device on them, and this human had no such device. It would exhaust itself and die. Noctis swam closer. He could feel the currents tug at him, but he was used to it. He navigated it easily. The human tried its best to stay over the surface, but the long swim had tired it. It couldn't stay afloat anymore. Noctis watched as the human got more and more exhausted, until it dropped under and didn't manage to swim back up.

There was no conscious thought that sent Noctis darting towards it. He merely acted. He hovered beneath the human first, hoping it'd manage to breach the surface again. But its body went limp, and Noctis realized there was no time left. With a few strong pushes with his tail he was next to the human, grabbing it, and racing it up to the surface.

Right before he breached the surface, he felt a jolt of fear, but he couldn't stop. And then he was above the surface, and he was breathing in the air, and he squinted against the vicious glare of the top-world light. There were sounds, sounds everywhere, loud and sharp and insistent, and the air moved against his face, his hair, like it was tugging at him. It stung to breathe, like swallowing tiny needles, but he breathed. And he heard, he felt, he saw, clearer than ever. Then he remembered the human in his arms, the human that needed the air to live. He hoisted him up - he thought it was a he - so that his head was over the surface, but the human didn't react.

'Maybe it needs to touch land', Noctis thought. This air was too thin to offer any leverage. It was such a strange substance. It was there, but not quite. It made him dizzy. No wonder the humans liked to stay on land. It was surprising that they even dared come into the water, seeing as it could kill them so easily.

Noctis towed the human back to land. The bay was devoid of people, thankfully. Noctis realized his shortcomings when he reached the shallow water, and barely could move anymore. How should he be able to get the human back on land when he was stranded on the rocky seabed? He wriggled and kicked off with his tail, and finally he managed to get the human far enough in on the land that the water didn't cover his face.

Noctis watched him expectantly. Any time now he'd start breathing again... any time... He poked the unconscious man. Nothing happened. Noctis felt dread creep in. Was he dead after all? He shook him. No reaction.

"Hey," he tried calling, but it was strange trying to speak in this air. His voice felt so weak. He slapped the man.

"Hey!"

The man jolted, and then he made a strange sound and curled over, water spewing from his mouth. Noctis felt so relieved that he forgot he was supposed to get away before he was seen. And then the human was staring at him, right into his eyes. Noctis couldn't look away. The human’s gaze was arresting. He stared at him for a long moment, frozen. And then his eyes slid from Noctis' face, down to his scaled, webbed hands, the translucent fins at his shoulders, the black and dark blue dorsal fin at his back, down to his black-scaled, sleek tail that disappeared into the water.

Noctis realized his mistake as the human’s eyes grew wide. He scooted back into the water, hard, but it was not enough to get him out of the shallows. Now he knew how seals felt when they were on land. It felt humiliating to move this way. He was used to move elegantly and effortlessly through the water. Here he felt vulnerable, an easy prey. With one last powerful twist and jolt, he managed to get into the deeper waters. He pushed off with his tail and surged away from land, headed for the safe depths. This had all been a mistake... a tremendous mistake.

 


	2. Out of Depth

Prompto went to the bay every day after the strange encounter with the fish man. No, what were they called again, the creatures from the myths... Merpeople! A merman... his friends would never believe him if he told them about it. He barely believed it himself. If he hadn't seen the man with his own two eyes... if he hadn't literally witnessed that ethereal beauty right in front of his nose, he wouldn't have thought it was possible. It was the merman’s blue eyes that lingered most vividly in Prompto's memory. They were the color of a quiet, deep sea. His hair had been so dark that it seemed to reject all light; lush, thick locks that framed a pearly white face. Prompto hadn't gotten a good look at the merman's body, but it was the fin on his back that stood out to him. When he first saw it, he couldn't comprehend what it was. It was the only thing that had seemed distinctly off before the mer had started struggling to get back out in the water, his sleek, black tail trashing. The fin on his back had been huge and spiked, a bit like that of a lionfish, and it had been black and blue, much the same color as the merman's eyes. He had been beautiful. Prompto wanted to see him again.

But after a week of hanging out at the bay and not seeing the slightest trace of the mer, he started to lose hope. He wanted to swim out in the hopes that he would encounter him further out, but for the first few days after he almost drowned he was barely able to come close to the water. The only reason he’d come back to the bay in the first place, was because of the merman. But now he started doubting what he'd seen. Maybe he had been hallucinating… He'd been passed out, close to dying... he might have just imagined, in some sort of near-death delusion, that he saw a creature not of this world, like an angel. Except with scales, and a tail...

He weighted a flat stone in his hand and threw it into the water. It sank to the bottom without skipping. Prompto picked a new one. The beach in the protected inner part of the bay was empty at this time of day. It was less of a beach and more of a pile of stones, to be honest. Few people came there, which was why Prompto preferred it. He had just moved to the area, and had immediately sought out the best place to swim. He interspersed his running with swimming, for some variation. He'd thought he was a strong swimmer until a week ago, but now he'd learned that there were dangers out here at sea that he hadn't known about. Now he at least knew where the rip current was, but he still felt shaky when thinking about going back out in the water.

He gazed out over the quiet water. Someone not from this world must have saved him that day, he was certain of it. The last thing he remembered was going under, far from land, pulling in water, unable to reach the surface, and then he woke up at the beach. Who else but a merman could have rescued him so swiftly, and disappeared so quickly? He threw another rock. He supposed that, if it really were a merman who saved him, he'd probably never see him again. It was a once in a lifetime experience. The merpeople were a myth for a reason.

He threw one last stone, a bit further out. It hit the surface of the water with a muted splash. Prompto stood and collected his shoes. He had turned his back to the ocean when he heard a splash, and then something hit the ground behind him with a heavy thump. He turned quickly. Among the stones and gravel lay one single wet stone, as though someone had just thrown it out of the water. Prompto stared at it, his mouth open. Had it just... had the stone he just threw into the water come back up again?! As he stood there and stared, another stone came out of the water and landed on the ground. Prompto walked closer to the edge of the water. He could glimpse a shadow under the surface a bit farther out, huge and dark, lying perfectly still.

Prompto dropped what he was holding, and after a moment of hesitation, waded into the water. The shadow could be anything... it was big enough to be a shark. But Prompto was almost a hundred percent sure it wasn't.

He stopped when the water reached him to his waist. The shadow remained unmoving. Hopefully that meant he hadn't scared him. He waited, unsure what to do. But the shadow rose slowly to the surface, and a dark-haired head with two blue eyes emerged from the water.

Prompto almost gasped. He realized he'd halfway expected the merman to be a figment of his imagination. But now he was right there, no more than two meters away from him.

"Hi." Prompto felt breathless. What was he supposed to say? Could the merman even understand him?

The merman just squinted at him. He kept the lower half of his face submerged. He probably couldn't breathe over water.

"Thank you for saving me."

Prompto waded closer. The merman disappeared under water.

"No, no!" Prompto waved his hands. "I'm sorry, come back."

He desperately searched the water for a sign of the merman, but he could see nothing but the rocky ocean floor. The merman was gone. Again. But at least he'd decided to come back.

 

\------

 

The next day, Prompto thought he saw a shadow in the water, near some rocks, as he braved the shallow part of the water. A few days later he saw the merman follow him as he swam a little further out. The day was clear and so was the sea. Prompto could easily see the shadow following him, a darker black against the forest of seaweeds. He imagined it came closer at times, curious, but each time Prompto looked, the mer was far enough away from him that he remained nothing but a blurry shadow. This continued on for the next week. Prompto came out to swim at an hour when there were few people out, usually around noon, and the merman was there, following him from a distance. Sometimes the mer got bold and swam closer to Prompto. Sometimes he even came so close that Prompto swore he could feel him brush against his legs. Once he saw his dorsal fin break the water not far from him. He made sure not to make any abrupt movements so as to not frighten the mer. For the most part he just ignored him, waiting for him to make the first move.

It happened around a week later. Prompto was swimming back to shore after having been out as far as he dared. The fear was starting to dissipate, much thanks to the knowledge that the merman was nearby. Suddenly he caught a movement right below him. He looked down, and there, right underneath him, was the merman. In the clear water, Prompto could see him as easily as if he stood right in front of him. Prompto almost forgot to swim. Seeing the merman in his element, gracefully rolling over in the water so that he was facing Prompto, his long, sleek tail moving languidly back and forth, the translucent, dark-blue tail fins shimmering in the sunlight… It made him speechless, motionless. It felt like he had gotten a glimpse into a fantasy world where complete beauty resided.

The merman gazed at Prompto with amusement. He looked Prompto up and down too. His gaze lingered on Prompto’s legs. He seemed utterly fascinated by them. He swam back, out of Prompto’s sight, and then Prompto felt him brush against his legs. It felt cold, and sleek, like touching a fish. Prompto shuddered. Then he felt a hand on his ankle, holding gently, touching his skin. The merman had to let go of him fast, since Prompto had to move his legs in order to keep afloat. Suddenly he resurfaced right next to Prompto. Up close, Prompto saw that the merman’s face was scaled, just as with the rest of his body, but the scales were smaller, and at first glance they looked like skin. They were shimmering slightly in the sunlight, like a pearl. He studied Prompto intently, swimming around him, reaching out to touch his hair. And suddenly he was very close, studying Prompto’s skin.

Prompto jolted when the mer touched his face. Not because of the cold feeling, he’d expected that, but because of the claws on the merman’s hands. His nails were long and hooked, like cats claws, and the scales on his hands were rougher. Prompto reached up and touched the merman’s hand and brought it up to his face. It was slender, like Prompto’s own hands, but because of the sturdy scales it looked dangerous; a formidable weapon. He could easily kill Prompto with one swipe of those claws. The mer was fascinated with Prompto’s fingers as well. He grabbed Prompto’s hand and studied it intently. He seemed amused by the soft pinkness of his fingers, and the tiny little nails.

Prompto was starting to feel the strain from threading the water for so long. He pointed to the shore and started swimming towards it. The mer followed him. Then he stopped him and took Prompto’s hand again. He turned around and placed Prompto’s hand on his shoulder. He wanted him to hold on. Prompto wrapped his arms around the merman’s shoulders, felt his scaled back against his chest. The dorsal fin pressed into his side. Then they took off through the water, much faster than Prompto would have been able to swim on his own. He laughed. The merman set course for a few rocks lying near the shoreline. He looked around, probably making sure there were no people around, before he swam a little closer, until the water was shallow enough for Prompto to stand in it.

“Thanks,” Prompto said.

To his surprise, the merman answered. His voice was hoarse and low, and his speech was quick and very foreign. He smiled. Prompto realized that he must be able to breathe over water. He’d had his head over water for the entire swim over, and he still hadn’t ducked under.

“You can breathe?” Prompto said.

The merman cocked his head. He didn’t understand what he was saying. He spoke, it sounded like a question. Prompto shook his head.

“I don’t understand.”

The merman swam forward and grabbed Prompto’s hands. His grip was gentle. He took care not to scrape Prompto with his claws. He said something, slowly, looking up at Prompto. Prompto wished he understood. He noted that the merman’s canines were sharp and slightly elongated, like on a predator. He touched the merman’s cheek, carefully, as to not spook him. He was still worried he’d startle if he were too abrupt. The merman pressed his cheek into his hand.

“I wish we could understand each other,” Prompto murmured.

He stayed with the merman until it got late and he started freezing. As he walked away from him, he felt his gaze on his back. He turned several times, and the mer remained there, out in the water, until Prompto was too far away to see him anymore.

 

 


	3. Into the Abyss

Noctis knew he’d been away for too long. Gladio was waiting for him by his room when he came back.

“Your father wants to see you,” he said.

Noctis knew he was in trouble. Regis was waiting for him in the coral garden, which was located above the merpeople’s kingdom. The merpeople resided near the twilight zone at night when they slept, and ventured higher up to collect clams, scallops, crabs and shrimps in daytime. They were always careful not to be seen by adventurous humans that came down in their strange suits. Thankfully, the humans were slow and their eyesight bad, so there had been no fatal slip ups as of yet.

Regis liked to watch the coral fish as they milled around on their day-to-day doings. Noctis swam over to him, quietly as to not rouse him from his meditative state. Regis heard him despite it. He spoke the second Noctis came up at his side.

“Where were you? I was worried.”

“Just scavenging metal husks. Lost track of time.”

“You know I worry when you take off on your own.”

“I’m sorry, dad. But Gladio and Ignis must get bored of babysitting me all the time, and you know I can take care of myself.”

“I also know that you’re too adventurous for your own good. Did you go to the surface?”

Noctis was taken aback by the question. He gaped.

Regis' expression darkened.

“N-no,” Noctis said, but he knew he sounded anything but convincing.

“Noctis… What have I told you about the surface? It’s dangerous.”

“But I’m careful!”

“It doesn’t help to be careful up there! One second of inattentiveness, and you’ll end up dead!”

“I know what I’m doin-“

“Do you have any idea how many devices the humans put in the sea that could kill you? Fishing nets, hooks, and all kinds of strange substances and items that they carelessly litter around them. Humans are dangerous, the surface is dangerous, and you are just a measly little creature to them. They wouldn’t care less if you died.”

“Not all humans are like that.”

Noctis wanted to take back the words the second he said them. His father measured him coolly, calmly, like he was trying to read Noctis’ mind. Sometimes Noctis felt like he could. He lowered his eyes.

“You know nothing about humans,” Regis said gently. “You might think you do, but they are not like us. They do not care, not about anyone.”

”Some of them care.” Noctis felt defiant. He couldn’t let his father speak that way. “This human is different.”

” _This_ human? You can’t let yourself get attached to them, Noctis. Think of your mother. She was just like you; curious about the humans, fascinated with the objects they dropped into the water. She wanted to _know_ them, to understand them. I told her it was dangerous to go up there, but she wouldn’t listen. It became her demise.”

Noctis’ mother had died when he was seven. Run over by a boat. Left for dead, mangled and helpless.

“The human… did you let it see you?”

“He was about to drown…”

“You know the rules! Never let the humans see you! Once they know of our existence, they’ll never leave us alone. I thought you said that you were being careful.”

Noctis bowed his head. He knew he had been careless, but he couldn’t let another living being die when he could help it so easily.

“He wouldn’t have seen me if I had been more careful… I’m sorry dad…”

“Sorry? Do you think your regrets are gonna save our people if this human goes blabbering?”

“No one would believe him,” Noctis said. “He was the only one who saw me.”

“And how can you be certain of that?” Regis sighed, bubbles rushing about his head. “You can’t keep being so careless, Noctis. I agree that this one human most probably isn’t a threat. But that’s not what worries me. What worries me is that you’ll keep doing this. You’re like your mother. The pull to the surface will always be alluring to you… until you get seriously hurt… or killed.”

“I promise, dad.” Noctis said, hopeful that he’d been forgiven. “I’ll never go up there again. Never.”

He already knew, as he was saying it, that he wouldn’t be able to keep his promise. He needed to go back. He needed to see the human again. But he would be careful. His father had no reason to be worried.

Regis caressed Noctis’ cheek. He looked saddened.

“I want to trust you,” he said. “But you’ve already proven that you’re untrustworthy.”

He pulled away from Noctis.

“You’re grounded,” he said. “Indefinitely.”

“… What?!”

Regis grabbed Noctis arm, and led him off to where Gladio was waiting a little away from them.

“Don’t make me repeat it,” Regis said, without looking at Noctis. He turned to Gladio. “Make sure he stays in the reef. Under no circumstances are you to leave him alone, not even for a second.”

Gladio looked puzzled, but nodded. Regis swam away, unmindful of Noctis’ pleas. Noctis raced after him, but Gladio grabbed his arm.

“Don’t make this more difficult,” he said. “You’ve already caused him enough grief with the way you sneak off all the time.”

“You don’t control me,” Noctis snarled, and tried to get out of Gladio’s hold.

“This is for the best.” Gladio tightened his grip.

Noctis twisted around and tried to slap Gladio with his tail. But Gladio, being the one who had taught Noctis that trick, deflected it easily. Noctis wasn’t done, though. He made a sudden feint and succeeded in making Gladio loose his grip on him. The second he felt that he was free, he shot off through the water. He was a fast swimmer, faster than Gladio who was much bigger. He heard Gladio call after him, angry, frustrated, but he didn’t stop. He’d made up his mind. He couldn’t stay a prisoner in his own home anymore. He was a grown up. His father had to let go of him, let him live his own life.

He set course towards the abyss, down where no one would think to look for him. Down to where the sea witch resided.

 

\------

 

The sea witch lived in a cave in the twilight zone, where no sunlight ever reached. It was fitting. The merpeople spoke of him like he was darkness in living form. Some said he was immortal. All Noctis knew was that Ardyn was the only one beside his father who was strong enough to save him from this situation.

He needed to be able to talk to the human. He’d been watching him for days, weeks, unable to stop coming back. The human fascinated him endlessly. There was something about him… Noctis didn’t know what, but after what happened between them that day… he couldn’t let his father separate them.

The entrance to the sea witch’s cave was like a black hole; darker, even, than the ocean around it. Noctis thought he had good night vision, but here even he had trouble seeing. He descended into the darkness with hesitance.

An eel slithered past him, seemingly coming out of nowhere, and Noctis startled. Laughter came from within the darkness.

“Don’t be afraid,” a silky voice said. “Come inside.”

Noctis continued forward, feeling his way along the wall of the cave, until he saw a blue sheen in front of him. The cave opened up into a spacious cavern, filled with glowing corals along the walls. At first Noctis couldn’t spot the inhabitant of the cave, but then a movement to his left alerted him to the presence of someone very close to him. He started to the side, and looked up to something that looked like a half-man, half-octopus that descended upon him. Noctis usually had nothing to fear from octopuses since he normally was much bigger than them. But this one was the biggest he’d seen. It could easily kill him. He shrank back.

“Ah… a mer,” the octopus-man said. “What an unusual honor.”

Noctis couldn’t help but feel that the man was being sarcastic.

“Now, don’t look so frightened. I’m sure you have a reason for being her. Merpeople seldom come down here without a reason.”

“Y-you’re the sea witch?”

Ardyn smirked. “Who else would I be?”

Noctis swam a little closer. “Then… you can help me?”

“That depends… What do you need help with?”

“I want to become human. I want to be able to walk on land and understand what they’re saying.”

Ardyn chuckled and turned away, swimming languidly towards the back of the cave, where thousands of shelves full of strange artifacts lined the walls.

“That’s no small request. How do you imagine a simple witch like me could grant a request like that?”

“I know who you are,” Noctis said. He swam in front of Ardyn, forcing him to look into his eyes. “You have the same power as my father. You once belonged to the Caelum line.”

A dangerous look crossed Ardyn’s eyes, before it quickly was smoothed over. “My, what you know,” he said, sounding amused. He swam past Noctis and searched through a shelf full of bottles. They were filled with all sort of strange things, from something that looked like seaweed, to things with eyes that stared emptily out through the stained glass. Like Noctis, Ardyn seemed prone to collect human objects. His cave was full of them; mostly pots and pans and bottles and the likes, but also strange items that Noctis had never seen before. Noctis swam over to a rectangular object with wires sticking out of it that resided on a shelf. He picked up one of the wires, but got his hand slapped by one of Ardyn’s tentacles.

“Don’t touch that.” Ardyn swam past him, over to a huge, rusty cauldron that was imbedded into the floor of the cave. He placed an assortment of bottles and jars on an outcropping of rock, almost like a human would put things on a table. Noctis had seen pictures, in the tomes, and he’d learned certain words when the text was attached to pictures. The tomes were very different. Some had lots of pictures but were often small and narrow, others had no pictures but were very beautiful and often bigger.

Ardyn had one such.

Noctis swam over to it where it lay open on a shelf. It was unmarred by the water, like there was some sort of film covering it. Noctis stooped closer. It seemed like some sort of magic was keeping it dry.

“I’ll help you,” Ardyn said, successfully gaining Noctis’ full attention. “But I’ll need something in exchange.”

Noctis swam closer to him. “Anything!”

Ardyn chuckled. “So eager.”

One of his tentacles caressed Noctis cheek and he got a faraway look in his eyes. “I remember being like you, once. Young. Eager. Trustful.”

A cold smile curled his lips. “But that is many ages ago now.”

“What do you want?” Noctis brushed away the tentacle. “I can get you anything. My father… He’s the king. He could give you anything you want.”

“Oh… Regis.” Ardyn started mixing the different ingredients into the cauldron. The ingredients stayed at the bottom of the cauldron, and didn’t float up. Noctis stared in puzzlement. Must be some type of magic. As Ardyn stirred, the concoction took on a nauseating green-yellow color.

Ardyn sighed. “I know perfectly well who your father is. As a matter of fact, he’s the one who exiled me to this place.”

Noctis felt a cold shiver run down his spine. The smile Ardyn directed towards him did nothing to take away his apprehension.

“But that’s all in the past. I have nothing unspoken with you. All I ask for my services, is that you give me one little thing, just a small sacrifice. A token of good will, if you want.”

Noctis nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

Ardyn mixed a few more ingredients into the cauldron. The potion took on a golden hue, not altogether unappetizing. Then he filled a small, round bottle with it.

Noctis reached for it, but Ardyn pulled back.

“Now for my part of the deal.” He ran his eyes over Noctis in a way that made him want to cover himself. “I want… you.”

Noctis’ heart jolted. “M-me?”

Ardyn’s smile was filled with pointy teeth. “Yes, you.”

“But… that’s too much… I can’t…”

Ardyn clicked his tongue. “And after all the trouble I went through to make this for you.”

He grabbed the small, round bottle with the amber liquid. “I suppose I’ll just have to throw this away.”

“Wait!”

Ardyn turned towards him, pointy smile in place.

“I… I’ll give you what you want,” Noctis said. He felt his heart hammer in the base of his throat.

“That’s a good boy,” Ardyn purred. He handed over the bottle. Noctis grabbed it eagerly. “Listen, and listen carefully,” Ardyn said. “I’m not cruel. I would like to see you succeed. You are, after all, my distant relative.”

Noctis shuddered.

“So… I’ll give you a chance at happiness. If you can find it - happiness, that is - up there on the dry land, then you will never need to see me again. But if you ever set foot in the sea again you’ll be turned back to your original form, and you’ll be mine. Forever.”

 

\-----

 

Ardyn watched Noctis’ sleek tail disappear down the tunnel as he hurried away with his precious treasure. The little mer-prince had been far too easy to bait. He didn’t even put up much of a fight. That was what love did… made you weak, easy to use. A shame, really. The prince was young and healthy. He had so many promising years in front of him, but instead he was wasting his precious youth on a useless top-world dweller. Pitiful. It didn’t matter to Ardyn, though. He’d get what he wanted nevertheless. Whether the prince caved in when his thirst for the sea grew so strong it felt like his soul was shriveling, or he somehow managed to survive up there on the surface, never seeing his friends and family again, never feeling the seawater’s caress on his body again. Ardyn would win no matter what, because in either scenario, Regis would lose his precious son forever.

“Oh, oops,” Ardyn said. “How silly of me. I forgot to tell the little prince that he’ll lose his voice.” He chuckled. “I hope it won’t be too much of an inconvenience.”

 


	4. On Dry Land

It was nighttime when Noctis emerged at the shore by the bay. He swam over to the rocks where the human had left him just a few hours ago. It felt like a lifetime. The shore was deserted now and it was unlikely any humans would show up at this hour. Noctis looked at the bottle of golden liquid in his hand. It looked unsuspecting enough. There was no time to lose. His father was probably looking for him. Noctis had managed to get up to the surface unseen, but he didn’t want to take any chances. He opened the bottle and put it to his mouth. The liquid tasted horrid. There was just one thing to do… He closed his eyes and downed the bottle in one, long drag, trying to swallow it so fast that he didn’t have time to taste it.

He sucked in some seawater to get rid of the horrible aftertaste. Then he waited. He wasn’t entirely sure if he believed that it would really work, and the longer it took without anything happening, the stronger he felt that it had all been a scam. He ducked under the water and found some seaweed where he could lie comfortably and wait. He fell asleep, but didn’t sleep for long. He woke to a burning pain in his tail. It was like his muscles were being stretched and pulled in every direction.

He pulled down a lungful of seawater, but instead of the relief of fresh oxygen to his lungs, he felt like he was being slowly choked. He needed to get to the surface, but his tail was in so much pain that he could barely move it. He wasn’t far from the surface, though, and he soon reached it. Breathing in air felt like a relief. He gasped and coughed. Then he started swimming towards the nearest rock. It was a struggle. His tail wasn’t working like normal. It cramped and ached, and it felt uncoordinated, like he couldn’t steer it the way he usually did. He clung to the rock and hoped the pain would recede soon, because this was excruciating. He didn’t know how long he hung there, but suddenly he heard a familiar voice.

“Noct!”

Ignis sounded breathless. Noctis turned his head as far as his aching gills would let him. Now it felt like his entire body was burning.

Ignis swam closer.

“Noctis, what are you doing here?” He sounded more exasperated than angry. “Your father is so worried, you shouldn’t swim off like that…”

Ignis paused.

“Are you alright? Are you hurt?” He touched Noctis’ arm. Noctis flinched.

Now Ignis was getting worried. Noctis wished he’d leave him alone.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing,” Noctis growled. “I’m just…” He groaned. The pain in his tail just seemed to increase. It felt like it was being split in two. And in truth, that was probably what was happening. Ignis had taken a better look at Noctis, and now he gasped.

“Noct… Y-you… Your tail! What is happening!?”

Now he sounded frightened, and it wasn’t helping Noctis… at all.

“Ig… Ignis, I…” Speaking was a struggle. His mind was foggy from the pain. “I’m turning… I – I asked… Ardyn…”

“Ardyn?!”

Ignis murmured something in distressed, angry tones.

Suddenly, he touched Noctis’ head, gently, and started stroking his hair.

“I don’t know what he did to you,” Ignis said. “But since it’s Ardyn, it can’t be good. Noct…” He sounded saddened. “You should have known better than to go to him.”

“I – I wanted… I needed… Dad shouldn’t…”

“Shh, don’t speak.” Ignis caressed Noctis’ cheek. “It’ll be okay…”

Noctis’ didn’t know for how long they remained there, Noctis leaning on the rock, whimpering in agony, and Ignis steadfastly soothing him. But after a while the run rose, and it started to become risky to remain where they were. By then, though, Noctis’ tail was gone, and so were his gills. The pain was receding, and he felt exhausted.

“You asked for this?” Ignis said.

Noctis nodded.

“Why?” Ignis sounded like he was on the verge of tears. “Why would you want this? Do you realize what it means?”

“Dad wants me to stay within the reef until I’m old and withered. But every second I spend in the vicinity of his kingdom, I’m just reminded of my mothers death. He’ll never get over it, and as long as he keeps nurturing his pain, he’ll never really let me live.”

“But being like this… you’ll have to stay in the top-world for… you can’t come back. Have you thought this through, Noctis? You can never come back!”

“I’ll turn back if I return to the sea,” Noctis said, conveniently leaving out the part where he’d become Ardyn’s prisoner the second he returned.

Ignis was too smart not to consider that, though. “This is Ardyn we’re talking about… I hardly think he helped you without making sure to get something for himself.”

“Don’t worry about that.” Noctis shakily started swimming to the shore. It was barely more than a few meters, but with his uncoordinated, weak tails it could as well have been a mile. Ignis swam up on his side and steadied him to the shore.

“How can I not worry?” Ignis said.

Noctis crawled up on the shore. He knew that as soon as he was out of the water, he couldn’t come back into it, not even touch it, ever again. But he had no choice now.

“Will I see you again?” Ignis asked.

“Check back here. If I come back I’ll come here.”

Ignis grabbed Noctis’ hand. “If?”

“I will come back here,” Noctis said. “But I don’t know when.”

“At the next full moon,” Ignis said. “Be here then. Please.”

Noctis nodded. “I will. But don’t tell dad, okay?”

“How can I not tell him? What else should I say? That you’re dead? It will break him.”

“Then… tell him that I went to the humans, but that I’m alive and well.”

“Noct…”

“In those exact words. Tell him, Ignis.”

“Do you really want to hurt him so much?”

“I’ve already hurt him…” Noctis coughed. His throat felt scratchy and weird. “Besides… He needs to understand that the humans aren’t… as danger-ous…”

“What’s wrong?” Ignis sounded worried enough that he could try to come up on land. In the light from the rising sun, the translucent, greenish fins on his shoulders and back glittered like pale emeralds when he rose halfway from the water.

Noctis shook his head to keep Ignis from coming closer. He tried to make sounds, but nothing came out. He grabbed his throat.

“That bastard,” Ignis bit out, to Noctis’ confusion. “Ardyn. He took your voice.”

Noctis stared at Ignis, panicked. It couldn’t be… But… Why?

“He’s not reliable, Noct… Your transformation came with a price.”

Noctis felt like crying. His eyes stung.

Ignis moved close enough that he could touch Noctis’ thigh. “I’m sure it’ll all work out somehow. You can come back if you decide you want to, right?”

Now Noctis just felt more like crying. He scooted away from Ignis. He wanted to tell him to leave him alone, but he couldn’t. Ignis got the hint after a while, though.

“I’ll be here during the next full moon,” was the last thing he said before he ducked back under the water. Noctis didn’t know if he stayed close or went straight to his father. He had a feeling Ignis stayed, though, at least for a while.

It took Noctis a while to get accustomed to his lack of voice and tail, but after the shock had receded he tried to stand. His new tails were shaky. It felt strange to rely so completely on two skinny stalks to carry him. In the water, he could float and move freely. Here, he staggered forwards and stumbled several times. It was difficult to keep balance. He sat down to rest on a rock farther down along the shore, in the direction where he’d seen the human walk earlier. He wasn’t entirely sure how he was supposed to find him. Maybe the wisest would be to stay there and wait. The human had been at the bay every day for the last few weeks. Surely, he’d be here today as well.

Meanwhile, Noctis used the opportunity to study his new body. His scales were completely gone, and all his fins as well. It felt strange to touch his skin. It felt soft and warm and a bit dry. Much like how the human had felt when he touched him. But his new tails… those were strangest of all. There were small appendages on the end of them, and each of the appendages had nails, like fingers. He reached forward and touched the bottom of his tails. They felt much like the rest of his skin.

But then there was the part between his legs. He’d never seen this kind of thing on humans before. And where were the colorful pieces that the humans always were covered in? He poked the pouch of flesh between his legs. It hurt. A sensitive area. Was it… was it the human reproductive organ? It had to be. How vulgar it looked. He understood why they liked to cover it up. But he had nothing to cover up with. Apparently, humans didn’t automatically come with the colorful things they always wore. Now he understood why each human always had the same color on their face and arms and some times legs, but many different colors on the middle. The parts that stuck out of the colorful things were their real bodies. The rest was just something they put on.

The sun was in zenith and Noctis was hiding in the shadow of a rock by the time the human came back. He didn’t see Noctis at first, but went over to their usual spot and dropped a bag on the ground. Noctis watched him for a moment. It was different to see him with human eyes that were used to the bright sunlight. He was a good-looking human, Noctis had already gathered as much. He hadn’t seen many humans, thought, but compared with many of the mermen Noctis knew, he was definitely a looker. He had taken off one of the colorful pieces, and Noctis eyes trailed to his abs. He felt his flaccid penis twitch. Easily excited… He had to mind that.

He picked up a stone and threw it towards the human. It hit the ground close to him, and made him turn towards Noctis. At first he looked shocked, then puzzled. He moved closer.

“Hi?”

Noctis realized he might be difficult to recognize without his tail and fins and scales, but he thought he saw a flicker of recognition in the human’s eyes. Shame he couldn’t tell him who he was… He struggled to his knees and stood shakily. The human rushed to his aid.

“Hey, easy there… What happened to you? Are you okay?”

Noctis shook his head. Then he realized… He could understand what the human was saying! He grinned and tried to tell the human that he could understand him… but only a croaky noise came out. He slapped a hand over his mouth.

“Can’t talk?” The human asked.

Noctis shook his head.

“Shit… that makes things difficult… I guess you don’t have any ID… Can you show me where you came from?”

Noctis pointed out to the sea.

“A boat?”

Noctis shook his head. He made swimming motions with his hand, like a fish cutting through the water. The human frowned. Noctis pointed downwards. Then he motioned to his shoulders and his back, indicating the missing fins.

“You… you came from the sea...” The human said slowly. “It’s you. The merman. It’s really… Is it you?”

Noctis nodded.

“You understand what I say? But… How… What happened? Shit, you can’t tell me… Uh…” His eyes flickered down Noctis’ body, and then hurried flickered up again. “ First off, you should probably put on some clothes. Here,” he grabbed his bag and pulled out a yellow piece of some sort of soft substance. “You can borrow my bathing shorts.” He thrust it at Noctis. Noctis grabbed it and stared at it, uncertain how to proceed.

“Um, you put it on,” the human said. “You know, just… Oh, wait… You probably don’t know what clothes are!”

Noctis gave him a puzzled look.

“Look.” The human grabbed the yellow… cloth… and shook it out. “You put your feet into these holes.”

He must have realized that Noctis didn’t understand a thing of what he just said, because he added, “Shit, you probably don’t even know what feet are.”

Noctis shook his head.

“Okay… Feet are these.” The human wriggled his… feet. “And these are legs.” He touched his tails… no, legs.

Noctis nodded to show he understood.

“Great, okay. So, you put the shorts – these are shorts,” the human held up the yellow shorts. “You put them on like this.”

He demonstrated by putting one leg through the hole in the shorts, and then the other, and then he pulled the shorts up to his waist. Now Noctis recognized it as the shorts the human usually wore when he swam. He nodded eagerly.

“You get it? Good!”

The human took off the shorts and handed them to Noctis. Noctis turned it around and around, and thought he found the right end, but it was too narrow… The human corrected him and finally Noctis was able to pull on the shorts. It felt strange to have the shorts cling to his skin, but at least his private parts were covered.

“Do you have anywhere to go?” the human asked.

Noctis shrugged. He supposed there was a cave somewhere nearby, and maybe he could find some scallops in the… no… he couldn’t go near the water.

“You’re probably hungry,” the human said. “If you want to, you can come to my place…? I know, it’s probably weird to ask, but… I suppose you don’t have anywhere to stay, and I have room in my apartment until you figure out… things… So you can stay, if you want to.”

Noctis nodded. He’d like to stay with this human.

“Great!” The human smiled. “I’m Prompto, by the way.”

Noctis was about to say his own name, but only a hoarse croak came out. He blushed.

“Uh, I guess we’ll get around to the introductions…” Prompto grabbed his bag. “Come on, let’s get something to eat!”

 


	5. In Uncharted Waters

Prompto led Noctis along the shore till they came to some strange, dark, flat ground that was really hot under Noctis’ bare feet. He still found the walking a bit difficult, but after watching Prompto and trying it out for a few minutes, he felt he was sort of getting the hang of it. The biggest problem was that his feet were so sensitive. Rocks and rubble cut into them, grass tickled them, and this strange asphalt – as Prompto called it – burned them.

Prompto gave him his own shoes, claiming that the heated ground hardly bothered him. To Noctis it felt a million times better. He understood why humans wore shoes. It made all the difference. They walked along the strip of asphalt for a while. In the baking sun, it was a little hot to Noctis. Prompto gave him his shirt too, so that his pale, sensitive skin shouldn’t get ‘burned’, as he said. It sounded terrible, so Noctis gladly accepted the cloth.

Noctis heard a rumbling sound approaching them as they walked. It sounded almost like a boat, though he thought they could function only on water. He turned around and saw a hulking, squared machine come racing towards them. He did the only reasonable thing and tried to get away, but Prompto grabbed his arm and held him so that he couldn’t leave. Noctis thought that Prompto had gone crazy. They couldn’t stay there and just wait for that machine to run them over!

“It’s okay,” Prompt repeated, again and again. “It’s okay, you’re safe here. Trust me.”

Noctis shook from top to toe, but he stopped struggling. The machine zoomed right past them.

“See?”

Noctis stared after the thing.

“That’s a car,” Prompto said. “They are steered by people, so they won’t run you down as long as you don’t run out in the middle of the road.”

Many more of those cars came driving past them, but it didn’t take long before Noctis started trusting that he wouldn’t get hit by them. Along the road lay huge, squared structures that Prompto called houses. They had squared openings in them so that people could get in. It was truly fascinating. Noctis wished he could tell Prompto how it was in his home: how they made their houses out of the coral reef, and inside tunnels in the bedrock. He wished he could show Prompto how beautiful it was. But then he remembered that he couldn’t return to the sea, and a pang of homesickness hit him. He regretted threating his father so harshly, but then he reminded himself that his father had left him no choice.

“This is my apartment,” Prompto said.

Noctis stared up at a tall, brown building. They went inside a chilly, open room and then Prompto suddenly walked up a creation that led diagonally up into the roof. Noctis hesitated at the bottom of the steep structure.

“It’s a staircase,” Prompto said. “Don’t worry, it’s not difficult to climb it.”

Noctis tentatively put one foot at the first shelf. It was difficult enough to keep his balance on flat ground, but it got even more challenging when he basically was suspended in the air with nothing but a flimsy few inches of wood underneath his feet. One wrong move and he’d fall straight down and not stop until he hit the floor. Hard. He’d learned that falling hurt, and the higher up you were, the more it hurt.

Prompto noticed that he struggled, and came down to support him. With Prompto’s help, Noctis felt a bit steadier. He didn’t look down, though. He was not used to being this high up without the security of water around him.

Prompto opened the door to his apartment and held it open for Noctis to go in first. The room was bright and filled with all sorts of objects. Noctis recognized some of them from one of the tomes he’d found, and others he recognized from things he’d found in the sea. He could even name some of the objects because there had been names next to the pictures in his tome. He touched a couch and was surprised at how soft it felt. He wondered what it was made of. There were some plushy, square things lying on it and a loose cloth that had to be too big to be a humans clothing. At least Prompto’s. This cloth was big enough to encompass someone twice Prompto’s size. Noctis lifted it up and held it in front of Prompto, measuring it.

“That’s a blanket,” Prompto said. “You put it around you if you feel cold.”

Noctis barely heard him. He saw something behind Prompto. A lot of shelves filled with tomes! He hurried over. There were so many! He pulled them out, one after the other, and placed them on the floor. Prompto had all kinds of tomes. Thin, thick, soft, hard, small, big, all kinds of different colors, and with different pictures on the outside.

Prompto stood a little hesitantly in the back. Noctis looked up at him with an excited smile. He gestured towards the tomes. He wished he could voice his excitement. Prompto didn’t seem to understand why he was so eager.

“You like books?”

Books… Noctis instinctually tried to say it before he remembered that he couldn’t. A raspy sound was all that came from his throat. He nodded instead.

Prompto kneeled next to him.

“Well… I don’t have a lot of interest in books… I guess I should try to read a bit more, but…”

He picked up one book.

“Can you read?”

Noctis nodded. Then he opened a tome… no, a book, and stared at the first page. It was blank. He turned the next page almost reverently. It was such a novelty to turn the pages in the element they were meant for. There were about six words on the first page. Noctis couldn’t read any of them. He didn’t understand… He understood the language Prompto was speaking, so why couldn’t he read it too? He looked in bewilderment from the book to Prompto.

“What is it? You don’t understand?”

Noctis shook his head.

“I supposed it’s different to read than to hear, you know? Like, I don’t know what made it possible for you to turn into a human or suddenly understand my language, but the written word is different. It’s… I’ve noticed that you don’t automatically understand words for things you’ve never seen before… Or maybe it’s things that your people doesn’t have words for. And I guess your people doesn’t have a written language that looks like ours, so you wouldn’t have anything to compare it with.”

Noctis shook his head. They were a small society and under water at that. They had a very primitive form of written language, more like a set of symbols that mainly was used to convey very simple messages. In addition they had to keep in mind that humans could discover them if they left too many clues of their existence, so although they were artistic of nature and loved to create things just as much as humans did, they had to limit their creative exploits to something that either couldn’t be found, or something that looked like a natural part of their environment. In other words, leaving written symbols all around was not a smart tactic.

But Prompto wasn’t entirely right. Noctis wished there was a way he could tell him about his mother and what she’d taught him. It was because of her that he had been able to pick up certain human words, although most of them were useless because he had no idea what they meant.

He came to think of something. He stood and touched the couch, then he looked at Prompto.

“That’s a couch,” Prompto said, understanding immediately what Noctis wanted. 

Noctis nodded eagerly. He encouraged Prompto to say it again. He had never known how the word couch sounded when it was spoken. He’d only seen it written before. Hearing the way the word was spoken gave the understanding of the written word a new dimension. It gave it substance and character. He knew the letters that it was created from, he had learned that much from what his mother had taught him, but he had never spoken them because she couldn’t either.

His eyes fell on a thick book that stood on a higher shelf. For a second, he lost his breath. His heart stood still for a beat. Then he reached up and grabbed the book. It was heavier than he anticipated so he almost dropped it. He placed it carefully on the floor. It had to be the same as… It had the same words on the outside… But how could it be? He opened the book and leafed through it, careful at first and then faster and faster.

“Um… I’m starved, so… I’ll just order us some food,” Prompto said.

Noctis nodded distractedly. He was distantly aware that Prompto was walking back and forth, talking to himself, but at the moment his peculiar behavior seemed secondary to this new treasure he’d discovered. He searched eagerly through the book… It had a system, it seemed, listing all the words that started with the same letter after one another. It didn’t take him long to find the n’s, and then it wasn’t much longer until he found what he searched for.

With a sound of joy that sounded mostly like a croak, he grabbed the book and rushed over to Prompto. He pointed eagerly at one word.

Prompto stared down at where his finger was pressed.

“Noctis?”

Noctis nodded eagerly and pointed at himself.

Prompto just looked puzzled. Noctis put the book down. He pointed at Prompto.

“What?”

Noctis poked his chest.

“Me?”

Noctis nodded. ‘Name’, he mouthed. ‘Prompto.’

Prompto’s eyes brightened as it dawned on him.

“Name… Noctis is your name?”

Noctis smiled and hugged Prompto.

“Oh, okay…” Prompto chuckled and awkwardly hugged Noctis back.

“So… Your name was picked from the Latin dictionary?”

Noctis nodded. Prompto picked up the book.

“I used to hate Latin,” Prompto muttered. “Don’t know why I kept that.”

Noctis mother had told him that she found his name in a tome called ‘Latin’ that some human had dropped in the sea. The cover of the book had lasted long enough for Noctis to see it. It was almost identical to the one Prompto had.

He was amused by the way Prompto pronounced his name. It was so different from what he was used to.

‘Again’, he mouthed and pointed at the book.

“You want me to say your name again? Noctis.”

Noctis smiled. ‘Again.’

Prompto blushed a bit. “Noctis.”

His voice sounded a bit softer when he said Noctis name. Noctis liked it. The gentle timbre of Prompto’s voice caressing his name like that. He really liked it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a tough chapter for me. I had to squeeze in a lot of explaining so it might have gotten a bit boring? The next one will focus more on their relationship, though :3


	6. Staying Afloat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been almost finished for an embarrassingly long time >< But I just haven't had the time to even think about looking at it lately. Hopefully, things will ease down now so that I can get to writing the next chapter ^^

Noctis was starting to get hungry, so when Prompto explained that their food would arrive very soon he got both impressed and relieved. A man appeared on the door shortly after, and Prompto received a big, flat object from him.

“I didn’t know what you like, so… uh… I got us pizza,” Prompto said when the man had left. “Everyone likes pizza, right?”

The object was opened, and inside was a peculiar sight. ‘What kind of animal is this?’ Noctis thought. He poked the ‘pizza’. It was soft and runny on some parts, and hard on others, and it seemed to consist of many different… parts?

“Try it, it’s really good,” Prompto said. He grabbed a piece of the pizza, it was formed like a triangle and detached itself easily from the main body, and put it in his mouth. Noctis watched intently. Then he too grabbed a piece of the pizza, lifted it with difficulty since it was kinda soggy, and took a big bite. At first he just felt the strange, doughy, runny texture, and then the different tastes basically exploded in his mouth. He dropped the pizza and spat out the bite.

Prompto frowned. “That bad?”

Noctis took big gulps from the glass of… what was this sweet, strange liquid? It felt like it bubbled and exploded in his mouth. He spat it out again.

“Oh god…” Prompto said. He ran out of the room and came back with a new glass, this time filled with what looked like water. Noctis took the glass and drank eagerly. The water didn’t taste like seawater, but it was still better than… whatever that black liquid had been.

“I suppose that, uh… human food doesn’t entirely agree with you…”

Noctis realized he’d made a huge mess of everything. It wasn’t like in the sea, where whatever you spat out floated away. Here it remained on the surfaces of everything, and on the fluffy thing on the floor, and on his clothes. He didn’t know what to do about it…

“Don’t worry about it,” Prompto said. “Just… don’t move. I’ll get a rag.”

Noctis remained in the same position, afraid to move and inch, until Prompto came back and wiped up the mess.

“Let’s find you something else to eat,” Prompto said. “I suppose you like seafood?”

 

\-----

 

Prompto took him to a place that was full of humans. They milled around some kind of wooden structures that were filled with human food. Vendors, Prompto called the people standing behind the stalls, accepting the strange little leaves that Prompto called money in exchange of the food.

It was a very strange system. Noctis would just have gone out and gotten the food from the nature. They walked along the narrow alleys between the stalls, dodging stressed out people who hurried back and forth. Noctis kept behind Prompto. It was like swimming through a shoal of herring… except these human shoals didn’t always part before you.

Noctis caught a strange scent in the air. It smelled like something he recognized, like the ocean, only much stronger, almost cloying. He looked around and ahead he noticed stalls filled with seafood. He pointed excitedly.

They stopped by a stall filled with scallops and mussels. Noctis grabbed a scallop and tried to pry it open, but it was impossible with his weak human nails. The vendor got a bit testy when Noctis tried to crack the scallop against a rock, but Prompto managed to appease him with some money, and then they went back home with a bag full of scallops and mussels and shrimps.

As soon as they got home, Noctis tried to crack the scallops open by hammering them against every hard surface, but Prompto stopped him.

“Look,” he said and pried the scallop open with a metal tool.

Noctis snatched it from him and ate it raw.

Prompto stared at him like he’d just thrown up on his carpet. He cleared his throat. “Are you sure it’s wise to eat them that way?”

Noctis ignored him. He took the metal tool from his hand and picked another scallop. He tried to do what Prompto had done, but it was more difficult than it looked.

“Let me help you.”

Prompto opened one scallop after the other and Noctis ate them perhaps a little too quickly, but he was so hungry after everything that had happened lately. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a good meal. When he finally had eaten his fill his stomach ached because he was so full, but it was a nice kind of ache. He felt satisfied and safe, and being with Prompto calmed him enough that for a while he almost forgot about the home he’d left behind.

 

\-----

 

Getting used to living on dry land was a huge and difficult transition. If Noctis thought the first day was overwhelming, then he’d just seen half of it. That night, Prompto offered him what he called a bed, which one was supposed to lie down on for the night. Noctis did not understand this at first, so he stood there alone in the bedroom and wondered what this big furniture was supposed to be used for. He then tried to find some way to sleep the way he used to, but he wasn’t sure how he could achieve that. Normally, he’d just float in the water. That was not possible anymore. He tried lying on the floor but it was so uncomfortable, and the bed kinda looked like it’d be nice to lie on. So he tried that, but it still felt funny to rest his entire weight on something while he slept, no matter how soft it was. He barely got a wink of sleep that night, and when he woke up he was so disoriented that the almost got a small panic attack. His body felt heavy, the light was so bright, and the substance he moved in felt so thin and unfulfilling, like it could barely hold him together. He fought with the cloths in the bed that he’d managed to entwine himself in, and fell out of the bed.

The encounter with the floor knocked the air out of him and left him sprawling for a moment. Prompto came rushing in to check what was going on. By then, Noctis had started remembering where he was and why he was there, and it all made a tight, heavy knot settle in his gut.

He ate more shellfish for breakfast. That was one thing he liked about this place. It had food easily available. Then Prompto said he had to go to work. Noctis didn’t understand what he meant with work. The word meant nothing to him. He wanted to come with him, but Prompto said he couldn’t.

“It’s… It’s how I get my money, you know? I have to work for a living, or else I can’t afford food or Internet or clothes or this apartment. Does that make sense to you?”  
Noctis shook his head.

Prompto sighed. “Either way, you can’t come. I’d have loved to show you were I work, but, well… You’re sort of easily excitable and I need to focus.”

Noctis must have looked just as miserable as he felt, because Prompto hurried to add, “But listen, I thought of something… I think you’re gonna like this.”  
He pulled Noctis with him to the bathroom. Yesterday he’d shown Noctis how to use the toilet, which was good because Noctis was used to a very different approach in that area and he would have hated to offend his kind friend. Today he showed Noctis what the big basin was for. He filled it with water. _Water_. Noctis stripped out of his clothes immediately and slipped into the warm water. He was unused to the high temperature, but it was so good to finally feel surrounded by water again that he hardly cared about such a minor inconvenience.

Prompto had a satisfied smile on his face that told Noctis he was proud and happy to have provided Noctis with such a treat.

“I’ll be back in a few hours. Just make yourself comfortable. There’s more food in the fridge. Um… remember to drink water, and stay in here as long as you want.”

Noctis smiled up at him and wished he could thank him. He stayed in the basin all day. He only got out to eat. When Prompto came back home, Noctis’ skin was so wrinkled he looked like, to quote Prompto, ‘a prune’.

“I thought I’d go for a swim in the sea,” Prompto said. “Wanna come?”

Noctis shrank back. He shook his head.

“You sure? We don’t need to go where we first met, if you’re afraid you’ll meet someone there. We could go somewhere else.”

Noctis shook his head again.

“But wouldn’t swimming in the sea be good for you? I mean, it’s where you came from and all, and you seem to like soaking in water.”

Noctis shook his head. He motioned to his legs, indicating a tail.

Prompto frowned. He didn’t follow.

Noctis pointed to himself, then he made wavy motions with his arms.

“You… and the sea?”

Noctis nodded. He pointed to himself again, then to his legs, then tried to indicate that he had a tail.

“You’ll turn back? If you go into the sea?”

Noctis nodded eagerly. He held up a finger.

“But…”

Noctis made a grimace and held his hands up like claws, and then he held his up his clenched hands, like he was gripping bars, and tried to look sad.

“Someone’s gonna imprison you?”

Noctis nodded again.

“Okay… I guess the sea is out then… But… what about fresh waters? Like rivers and such?”

Noctis thought about it. Ardyn had specifically said the sea. He nodded.

“Fresh waters are okay?” Prompto’s face lit up in a smile. “Then I know just the place we can go.”

 

\-----

 

Prompto took Noctis to a lake nearby. It was only a thirty-minute drive up towards the mountains. Prompto preferred to swim in fresh waters, but since the sea was only a ten-minute walk away from his new apartment he’d settled for that.

Noctis stripped off all his clothes the second he came close to the water. Prompto was grateful he’d chosen a part of the lake where people seldom came. He watched Noctis’ ass as he waded into the water. He really had a nice ass for a merman. His human form was perhaps not as stunning as his mer-form, but that hardly said a lot. He was a very beautiful man, and his inability to keep his clothes on was a constant distracting to Prompto.

He waded into the water after Noctis and caught up to him when the water was around knee height. Noctis turned and gave Prompto’s shorts an amused look. He pointed at them and then made a cutting motion with his hand, like he was telling Prompto to get rid of the shorts.

“You might be okay with skinny dipping, but I like to keep some modesty.”

Noctis shrugged and cocked his head, and then he reached for Prompto’s shorts. Prompto backed away.

“Ahaha… I don’t think so.”

Noctis motioned to himself in all his naked glory, which made Prompto look exactly where he’d been trying to avoid looking. He blushed and looked away.

“I guess it’s only fair,” Prompto muttered. “You’ve shown me yours, so… Though I doubt you’ll get the same out of it as I do.”

He slipped off his shorts and threw them on land. He had to fight the strong urge to cover his dick. Noctis was staring really openly. He looked utterly fascinated. Then his cheeks colored and he looked slowly up at Prompto with a strange look on his face. His eyes seemed darker, somehow, and it was like he looked at Prompto… differently.

Prompto knew he was average enough not to warrant that kind of reaction just from one look at his cock alone. It seemed that Noctis didn’t quite understand his own reaction either. He backed off into the water, his cheeks still a bit red, his eyes fixed on Prompto, occasionally flicking down to his cock. Then he suddenly disappeared under water.

Prompto waited, expecting him to resurface very soon. The more time that passed, the more worried Prompto got. He waded further into the water until it was waist high.

He felt something right next to his thigh, and then Noctis came out of the water, slowly, until he stood face to face with Prompto. 

They were nearly the same height. Noctis studied Prompto’s face intently, like that time when they first met each other properly, except this time there was something else behind Noctis’ intent gaze. 

Suddenly it occurred to Prompto… was this flirting? Was he being attempted wooed the merman way? In that case, it seemed Noctis wasn’t entirely sure how to go about it. He bit his lip like he was thinking hard about something rather than because he was trying to be coy, and studied Prompto’s body from top to toe… or, mid-waist as anything below that was under water. Then he dropped under water again, but this time he stayed close to Prompto and despite his best efforts, Prompto couldn’t stop his cock from hardening.

He gasped softly when he felt Noctis’ hands on his thighs. They only touched him lightly before letting go, and then Noctis swam away.

Prompto needed a moment to calm down before he set out swimming too. He tried to keep tabs on Noctis, but he could hold his breath for a long time and he swam very fast. Suddenly he’d reemerge far away from him, and shortly after he’d come quietly out of the water right next to Prompto and almost give him a heart attack.

As Prompto swam farther and farther out, Noctis kept closer to him. He swam around him, sometimes so close that their skin brushed. Prompto got a feeling that it was part of the courting. It was a sensual dance, one that Prompto couldn’t participate in. He wasn’t as elegant and nimble in the water as Noctis was. Also, he didn’t know the rules. He could only keep still in the water as Noctis circled around him, letting his side touch Prompto’s thigh as he swam past him, or a shoulder touch against his back. It wasn’t intimate touches, but enough to let Prompto know that Noctis wanted physical contact.

“Is this how you court each other?” Prompto asked when Noctis came up for air right next to him.

Noctis blushed but nodded.

He came closer to Prompto while holding himself almost vertical in the water. Prompto tried to stay lose to him without bumping their legs together, but it was difficult. He wondered how Noctis kept afloat so easily. Noctis came closer, so close that their noses nearly bumped. Prompto fought to keep as still as possible. He felt Noctis’ breath over his lips. Nothing mattered at that moment except that he was about to kiss this beautiful man that he hadn’t dared to even hope would be interested in him. He held his breath and leaned closer, tilted his head… and managed to bump their teeth together. Noctis jolted away with a surprised whimper.

“Sorry!”

Prompto reached out to draw Noctis back.

“I’m bad at merman-flirting… I’m sorry…”

Noctis grinned. He pointed towards land. Prompto nodded gratefully.

“Yeah, I think that’d be better.”

It was cold when they got out of the water so they packed their towels around them and hurried towards the car. Once they were inside, some of the bashfulness returned. They dressed quickly and set course for the city. Although they were quiet for the whole ride, it didn’t feel like an uncomfortable silence. When Prompto glanced over at Noctis, his gaze was returned immediately and, although shyly, also mildly, like they were sharing an intimate secret. Prompto smiled the whole way home.


	7. A Cold Shower

They were lying on Prompto’s bed, side by side. Noctis had walked straight to the bedroom once they were home, and in the doorway he stopped to look at Prompto. Prompto had just stood there, dumbfound. Was Noctis inviting him into bed? Already?

He followed hesitantly, but once they’d laid down, Noctis hadn’t made any further advances. Prompto decided to wait and see what he wanted. Noctis had reached out and caressed Prompto’s cheek. His fingers barely grazed Prompto’s skin. He looked like he wanted to say something. His lips parted. Then he frowned like he suddenly remembered that he couldn’t speak.

“Who’s after you?” Prompto asked. He took Noctis’ hand, caressed his fingers and the back of his hand. His skin was soft as silk.

Noctis lifted his hand and wriggled his fingers while making a grimace.

Prompto laughed.

“I’m not sure I get it.”

Noctis set up a thinking face. He held up eight fingers. Then he wriggled them, downwards, almost like…

“An octopus?”

Noctis grinned brightly and nodded.

“And octopus is after you?”

Noctis nodded again, this time more gravely. He frowned and made an exaggerated mean grimace.

“It’s an evil octopus?”

Noctis pouted and nodded.

“I see… and there’s nothing you can do?”

Noctis shook his head. He pointed at himself. Then he hit his own head.

“What are you doing?”

Noctis made the same motion again.

“It’s your fault?”

Noctis looked sad as he smiled. He nodded again and knocked his forehead with his knuckles.

“I’m sure you can make up for it somehow…”

Noctis shook his head. He looked sadder than ever.

Prompto reached out and caressed his cheek.

“I won’t leave you, at least. I’m here for you, no matter what.”

Noctis’ smile quivered slightly at the edges.

 

\-----

 

Aranea looked skeptical when she heard about Prompto’s new roommate.

“So… You found him on the beach? And then you just… took him home?”

Prompto hauled another box up onto the pallet.

“He’s special.”

“I see… Especially pretty?”

Prompto felt his cheeks blush. “N-no, it not just because of that.”

“So he _is_ pretty.”

Aranea placed another box on top of Prompto’s as easily as though it was light as a feather.

“I’m telling you, he’s special. He… he came from the ocean.”

Aranea arched one eyebrow. “Really. That’s what he told you?”

“No, he can’t talk.”

“Seriously?” She shook her head. “Sounds like you’ve walked straight into some fairytale.”

“I don’t know what to do with him,” Prompto said. “He can’t go back where he came from, and although I love having him with me, I can’t really support us both on my salary.”

“Then you better teach him to work. It might be a tough lesson for him, but there’s no other way to survive in this world.”

Prompto sighed. She was sadly very right about that.

“I’m thinking of getting a second job,” he said.

“Want me to ask around?”

Aranea knew a lot of people. Some of them in businesses that were a bit shadier than Prompto liked. Still, he was kinda desperate.

“Sure,” he said. “Thanks.”

 

\-----

 

Prompto found Noctis soaked in the tub every day when he came home from work. He wanted to take him out to the lake again, but most days he was too tired from work.

When Noctis wasn’t soaking, he was exploring the TV, and after a while the PC too, with a fascination that bordered on obsession. In the beginning he pointed at the TV every time the image changed. He stared with fascination at the talking and moving figures. He looked behind the TV and searched the whole apparatus to find out how it worked, until Prompto had to stop him before he ruined it. He tried to explain how it worked, but Noctis seemed convinced it was witchcraft.

One day, Prompto came home to find Noctis staring in fascination at a porn clip on the PC. Prompto felt his face go red from chin to hair roots. He barged forward and slammed the PC shut. That had been a video clip he knew all too well. He’d watched it far too many times.

Noctis startled and stared at Prompto like he feared he’d gone crazy.

“Don’t look at that,” Prompto said. “It’s private.”

Noctis looked apologetic. He mouthed the word ‘sorry’. He’d gotten better at that lately, copying the way Prompto talked and mouthing the words almost perfectly.

“It’s okay,” Prompto muttered. “Just… Don’t… It’s rude to go through my tabs.”

They didn’t say much more to each other before they went to bed. Prompto was more embarrassed than angry. The clip had featured a dark haired, handsome and slim guy, much like how Noctis looked. He hadn’t looked even remotely like Noctis, so Prompto doubted Noctis had seen the connection, but it was embarrassing never the less.

 

\-----

 

That night, Noctis woke Prompto up in the middle of the night by crawling onto the couch together with him. Prompto startled. His first thought was that something was wrong.

“What is it?” he sat up. “Are you okay?”

Noctis brushed away Prompto’s supportive hand from his shoulder. He nodded. He was watching Prompto’s face intently from underneath his eyelashes. He seemed deeply contemplative.

Prompto touched his cheek, half expecting to find that he had something stuck to his face. “What…?”

Noctis leant closer, still staring at Prompto. He opened his mouth as if to talk. Prompto couldn’t help but let his gaze drift to those plush, red lips. Suddenly it occurred to him that… maybe Noctis had come to…? He swallowed thickly. It couldn’t be… Although… That day when they were out by the lake… It seemed so long ago now, but it wasn’t more than a week ago. That day Noctis had wanted something more from Prompto… and now he was trying again, but this time he had no water to help him along with getting his message by.

Then it struck Prompto; Noctis was probably using the porn clip as reference. He must have been uncertain how to approach Prompto this whole time while Prompto was busy with work and with worrying and with waiting for Noctis to make the first move. But now he had seen how humans approached each other with that intent, or at least he’d seen a version of it, and perhaps he finally felt he had something to go by. Prompto felt stupid for not having paid attention to Noctis advances before. It was just… He’d been worrying a lot lately since his job barely paid his bills, and he’d been so uncertain about Noctis. He’d been convinced that Noctis wouldn’t want him to take action, so in his conflicted indecisiveness he’d let it be up to Noctis. But it was obvious he was struggling with getting his intentions by.

“Do you want to…?”

Prompto gestured vaguely. Noctis just looked puzzled.

“I mean… Do you want to sleep here? With me?”

Noctis’ whole face lit up in eagerness. He nodded. Prompto pulled the sheet aside and made room for Noctis. They snuggled up close and bundled up underneath the sheet. Noctis stretched to his full length and undulated against Prompto’s body, pushing his hips against Prompto’s. The movement seemed to imitate the way he would move under water. But here, on dry land, it didn’t carry the same message. Prompto slid a hand down along his body down to his hips to still him.

“Noct… Do you… Do you want to have sex?”

He just had to be direct about it, even though his face was burning and his heart was hammering in his chest.

Noctis stared up at him, wide-eyed. Then he nodded.

Prompto’s heart beat, if possible, even faster.

“Okay… Right… It’s a bit soon, isn’t it?”

Noctis just looked puzzled.

“No? You merpeople are pretty straight forward…”

Noctis leant on his elbow and pressed his face closer to Prompto’s. He tilted his head and pressed a small kiss to Prompto’s lips. Prompto felt his entire body go mellow as putty, and the connection between body and brain got pleasantly muddled.

“That… that’s nice…”

Noctis kissed him again. He nudged Prompto into a series of explorative butterfly kisses. He got more and more eager and Prompto accepted everything he had with relish. He couldn’t believe he was finally kissing this beautiful man. Noctis reached down between them and all of a sudden his hand was inside Prompto’s boxers, closing around his cock. They both gasped. Prompto had to pull away from the kiss. He sucked in air through his teeth in a soft hiss as Noctis’ hand massaged him. It was obvious he wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing. His hand moved almost a little shyly, mapping out every inch of Prompto’s throbbing cock with gentle and curious strokes. He nipped at Prompto’s jaw and nuzzled against his cheek.

Noctis ground his hips down against Prompto’s, letting him feel how hard he was. Prompto groaned softly. He clutched Noctis’ thighs.

“Oh god, Noct…” He gasped against Noctis’ lips.

He felt Noctis shift and wriggle… he was taking off his shorts… and his boxers, which were black with yellow chocobo’s on them. His cock stood at attention, flushed and stiff. Prompto wetted his lips. It had been so long since the last time he had sex… but he couldn’t…

Noctis grabbed Prompto’s cock and adjusted himself like he wanted to sink down on it, just like that. Prompto had to force himself to react. This couldn’t go on. Noctis would hurt himself. Prompto grabbed Noctis’ hips and pushed him away.

“No, we can’t…”

Noctis looked hurt. He slid off Prompto and searched for his shorts.

“It’s not because I don’t want to…” Prompto sat up. “I do, it’s just… I don’t have any lube, and… I don’t know how you merpeople do it, but us humans we have to prepare before… doing it that way…”

Noctis just looked confused. He found his shorts, slid them on, and hurried back to the bedroom. The door closed behind him with a decisive click.

Prompto rested his head in his hands and groaned softly.


	8. An Ocean of Tears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Noctis isn't faring so well...

Noctis buried his face in Prompto’s soft pillow until he was dizzy from lack of air. Only then did he resurface, gasping for air, feeling the painful sting in his lungs. It was daytime. The sunlight filtered in through the blinds in Prompto’s bedroom. Prompto had probably gone to work by now. It took Noctis every ounce of his willpower to sit up and put his feet on the floor. The empty space around him, the untouchable air, felt heavier than any body of water had ever felt around him. It held him down in ways that he found no way to fight against. It was all he could do to get himself to the bathroom, fill the tub, and submerge himself. It made him feel a tiny bit more at ease. The water cradled him in a soft, caring embrace that the air never could hope to imitate. He ducked his head under water and stayed submerged for as long as he could. For each day, he managed to prolong the amount of time he could hold his breath. It felt like a small victory in this world of dryness and stagnation.

It had rained one day, and Noctis had nearly stumbled down the stair in his eagerness to get out and feel the water against his skin. The phenomena fascinated him. He was used to being surrounded by water, but he was not used to seeing it fall from above. He stood there until he had become so cold he couldn’t feel his feet anymore. Prompto came home and found him standing there. He’d gotten worried and hurried Noctis inside. Then he made him a warm bath and Noctis soaked in it until the water almost had turned cold again. After that he went to bed, and Prompto slept next to him.

While Prompto slept, Noctis had watched him and wondered what Prompto felt about him… about all this. He seemed stressed and worried as of lately. He hardly spoke to Noctis anymore. Noctis had reached out and gently caressed Prompto’s face. He’d looked soft and carefree in his sleep. His eyelashes were long and soft, but light, and they fluttered when Noctis gently drew his thumb across them. Prompto had slept on, too tired to even wake up when Noctis leant in and kissed him. Noctis let the kiss linger. Where he came from, the act of courting was straightforward and urgent. Sex wasn’t something that they worked up to. It was done in the moment, without worry or shyness.

At first, when Prompto had rejected Noctis, he’d been hurt. He hadn’t understood that Prompto rejected him because he didn’t want to hurt him, and not because he didn’t want him. The day after Prompto blushingly explained to Noctis how sex worked among humans, and he understood why Prompto had done what he did. But Noctis sensed that to Prompto, sex meant more than just a quick romp. He was almost a bit reverent about it. To him it seemed to be something two people worked themselves up towards with time and effort, or else it was just something fleeting and meaningless.

To Noctis it was meaningful whether it was done right then and there or later, but he understood that Prompto perhaps wanted them to know each other better. He seemed to like the kissing, at least, and some touching too, but only on ‘safe’ parts of the body. It was starting to occur to Noctis that humans had a strange, albeit kinda cute relationship to sex. When Noctis watched the movies Prompto kept in his apartment – the circular one’s inside the packaging, not those on the _intrenet_ – he noticed that they never involved sex but often featured a lot of… what should he call it… pining. And then they often ended in a sweet kiss, or a very frenzied kiss, and then the two people woke up in bed next to each other… with clothes on.

The first time Noctis watched one such film, he was very puzzled. He’d been eager for the sex scene. He wanted to know more about the way humans mated. But then there was… nothing. After watching a lot of movies he started to notice a pattern. These humans, they seemed very secretive about sex. They wanted to hide it, almost like they were embarrassed about it. It was noticeable in Prompto too. He always got bright red when he had to talk about sex.

So Noctis learned to temper himself. He imitated the movies and approached Prompto more carefully. A touch here, a glance there… But something was amiss. Prompto didn’t seem to notice his advances. Maybe he was being too subtle? Or maybe he didn’t appreciate them. Noctis felt confused and hurt. He had felt that there was something between him and Prompto, but maybe he had been wrong.

 

\-----

 

The full moon was approaching, and with it Noctis’ meeting with Ignis. In the beginning he had told himself he shouldn’t go back to see Ignis. He knew that coming so close to the sea, to his friend, would only make leaving again so much harder. But as the time of the full moon arrived, Noctis found he couldn’t stay away. He needed to go see Ignis, to get only the smallest of glimpses of his old home.

The only problem was that he didn’t know the way there. He would need to let Prompto in on his plan.

‘Meet friend’, he mouthed that evening when Prompto finally had come home from work. He’d waited until Prompto had eaten. He always looked dead tired right after he came back from work. He had to repeat the silent words a few times before Prompto understood and nodded.

Noctis pointed at Prompto. ‘Show the way.’

Prompto nodded again. “You want to go to the place where I first found you?”

Noctis nodded, grateful that he didn’t need to explain further. Sometimes it felt like Prompto knew what he wanted before he’d even tried to express it. Other times he didn’t understand at all, but those few times that they were completely in sync with each other made it all feel… worth it, somehow. All this pain and longing and misunderstanding and struggling… the homesickness, the horrible longing for the sea… It all felt… bearable those times when Prompto made him feel like he belonged.

The only problem was that it didn’t happen all that often. Most of the time, Prompto wasn’t even at home, and Noctis couldn’t come with him because, apparently this ‘job’ that he attended every day was something he needed to do alone.

 

\-----

 

They walked along the empty, dark road and along a rocky path until they reached the shoreline. It was dark outside, but Prompto had brought a flashlight. Noctis stumbled along the rounded rocks on the beach until they reached a couple of big, familiar stones that lay half submerged in the water. It was high tide, so only the tops of the stones were visible. Noctis noticed Ignis almost immediately. He saw the glint of shells when the flashlight swept over the rocks, and then a soft splash as something disappeared into the water. Prompto didn’t seem to have noticed.

‘Turn off.’ Noctis pointed at the flash light. He caught Prompto’s attention. ‘Off.’

Prompto did as told, and for a moment they were thrown into total darkness. Noctis made his way along the edge of the water till he reached one of the stones that lay barely visible over the dark waves. The sea was relatively still tonight, which was good because Noctis couldn’t risk getting hit by a wave. He jumped out onto the closest rock and nearly lost his balance, but regained it quickly and proceeded to the next rock and the next, until he was as far out into the sea as he could come without getting soaked.

He sat down and waited until the water close to him finally gave way for a sandy head of hair. It was a relief to see someone of his own kind again. It felt like a dream, all of this, and now he was waking from it, slowly. Ignis placed his hands on the rock Noctis was sitting on, and rose out of the water. He lifted himself as far up on the rock as he could come. Noctis shot forward and pulled him into a crushing hug. Ignis pressed his cheek to Noctis’.

‘I’ve missed you,’ Noctis mouthed, forgetting that he couldn’t speak. The reminder almost made him cry.

He pulled back so that Ignis could read his lips.

‘How is dad?’

“He’s not taking this very well, Noct.”

Noctis felt the guilt he’d been carrying all along become even heavier inside his chest.

‘I’m sorry,’ he tried to say, but only a hoarse croak made it’s way up from his throat. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt him…’

“It’s okay.” The soft look on Ignis’ face told Noctis that he didn’t blame him. He just looked sad. “It’s my fault too. I was tasked with watching over you, but I let you do as you pleased because I thought your father was being too strict. But if I had done as he told me to, this wouldn’t have happened.”

‘Hush…’ Noctis placed a hand on Ignis’ cheek. ‘Not your fault. Did dad punish you?’

Ignis shook his head. “He’s grieving. Your disappearance weights heavily on him. He wishes there is something he could do to make you come back. He doesn’t know that I’m seeing you tonight. I couldn’t bring him because… I hoped you would listen to me, Noctis. Please consider coming back.”

Noctis shook his head. He saw the sorrow on Ignis’ face and wished more than anything that he could come back with him.

‘Ignis… Look…’ 

Ignis watched his face intently, knowing he needed to pay minute attention to grasp what Noctis was saying.

‘I can’t come back… Ardyn… I swore myself to him.’

Ignis frowned. “What?”

Noctis bit his lip to keep back tears. ‘I can’t touch the sea. Ever again.’

“Y-you _can’t_ come back?”

Dread and anger warred over Ignis’ face.

“That… that _witch_! That…”

Ignis lowered himself into the water and swam a little away, as though he feared that he’d accidentally douse Noctis in seawater if he lingered too close.

Noctis was crying now. He reached out for Ignis, and Ignis took his hand, although carefully.

‘I’m sorry.’

“Noct… Don’t blame yourself. Ardyn tricked you.” He nearly hissed out the witch’s name. “If he wasn’t already exiled from our kingdom, your father would have ended him. As it is, he slips out of our grip far too easily.”

Ignis swam closer and grabbed Noctis' hand again. He held onto it, firmly, and for a second Noctis feared, almost hoped, that he’d pull him under.

Ignis seemed to struggle to find words. He stared at Noctis’ hand and caressed it gently. Noctis felt the rough scales dig into his soft skin, but he didn’t care.

“I told your father that you ventured to the top world and that you never can turn back,” Ignis finally said. “I told him that you’re much happier here because you always longed to come here. Please, Noctis… Please tell me that I’m right.”

Noctis couldn’t do anything else but cry. ‘I don’t know… It’s so difficult…’

“It’s difficult in the beginning. Transitions always are. But you will adjust, I know you will.”

Noctis shook his head. Ignis let go of his hand.

“Promise me that you’ll keep going, no matter what. _Promise me_.”

Noctis hung his head.

“At least come back here by the next full moon. I’ll be here again. Perhaps the situation will look different with time.”

He let go and with one, last, long look, he spoke the words; “Good bye, Noctis. I love you, and if your father were here he would have told you how much he loves you too. You have no idea how much he regrets that he controlled you so.” 

He looked pained as he spoke. Then he disappeared under water as sudden as he’d appeared, leaving no trace behind other than a gentle ripple across the smooth, black surface. Noctis nearly dove into the water after him, but somehow he remained frozen where he was.

Prompto’s voice called him back to the present. He had followed Noctis out onto the rock and now he placed one hand gently on Noctis’ shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” was all he said, but somehow his voice encompassed all the grieved understanding that Noctis needed in that moment. With an incredible force of willpower, he tore his gaze away from the alluring waves that licked the stone he sat on, and buried his face against Prompto’s chest.


	9. A Deep Wound

Noctis didn’t remember the walk back to the apartment. At some point he’d become so cold that he was shaking, and still he couldn’t feel anything but an all encompassing numbness that seemed to spread through his whole body like a weed. Prompto managed to get him into bed, somehow, and got in together with him. He held Noctis close and rubbed his arms and his back in an attempt to get some warmth back into him.

“I know how you feel,” he murmured. “I mean, I think I do. I lost my family when I was very young. I imagine you feel somewhat the same as I did. Like you’re afloat in a vast space that doesn’t seem to want you, with nothing or nowhere to call your own.”

Noctis pressed his face to Prompto’s warm chest. It was a strange kind of relief to find that someone else had felt the way he did now.

He looked up at Prompto and mouthed, ‘How did you cope?’

Prompto brushed a lock of hair away from Noctis’ forehead. A look that was soft and sorrowful at the same time passed over his eyes.

“I don’t know… I just lived on and somehow that feeling went away. Not entirely, but it became manageable. I try to find somewhere to call my own; someone with whom I feel at home, but… I’ve never quite settled, and I’ve never met anyone that make me feel like I belong somewhere…. Well, until you…”

He added the last part shyly.

Noctis scooted up so that they were on eye-level.

‘Me?’

“Don’t look so surprised. You must have noticed that I feel something for you…?”

Noctis sat up. He felt a wave of distressed anger course through him. Here he’d been worrying about what Prompto felt, and then the guy had the audacity to assume that his feelings were obvious?!

He shoved Prompto.

“Ouch! What was that for?”

Noctis threw his arms to the sides. ‘You idiot!’

“Whoa! First off, what’s the deal? And second, when did you learn to say idiot?”

Noctis shook his head.

‘I-‘ He indicated himself by pressing one hand to his chest. ‘… I thought you didn’t care!’

“Why? Of course I care! I’ve always been here for you, I’ve taken care of you…!”

‘You’re gone all day!’

“I work, Noctis! I have to, or else I won’t be able to buy us food, or even a roof over our head! I know, it might be difficult for you to understand, where you come from you apparently don’t work in the sense we do, but believe me when I say that I have no choice!”

Noctis turned away from Prompto. He wished he could scream and shout, but his throat remained despairingly incapable of forming anything other than choked groans. He wanted to cry, he couldn’t take all this. It was too much.

“Noct…” Prompto’s voice had become gentle. “Noct, I’m sorry, I didn’t wish to make you worry...”

Noctis shook his head. He did understand that Prompto had no choice, but it was just... it wasn't easy for Noctis, adjusting to all this newness on his own while all the time knowing that he could go back to the sea again if only he chose to. That was the worst part. He had choices, but each one seemed worse than the next. In the end, it felt more and more like he’d made the wrong choice when he left the sea, and it was so difficult to live with.

He turned halfway, enough to let Prompto read his lips.

‘Why won’t you have sex with me?’

Prompto looked surprised. Then his expression softened into one of regret.

“I do want to,” he said. “More than anything.”

Noctis frowned and shook his head, incredulous. Prompto must have seen on Noctis’ face the question that he couldn’t speak, because he answered like he’d heard him put it into words.

“It’s not as straight forward with humans as it apparently is with merpeople. We need time and reassurance and… and some, many, would like to just jump right to the sex, but I can’t. I want to know that it’s me you want and not just any warm body to sate your needs.”

Suddenly, Noctis understood. It was so pure, this fragile and sweet need to be loved. Not just desired, but honestly loved. Noctis felt the same way, he’d just never drawn the link between sex and love. Not in that particular way. Maybe it was more a him-thing than a mer-thing. Maybe other merpeople knew what it meant to combine sex and love. For him, it had always been the love from his father and absent mother that he craved, that he needed. The sex had been something else, something nice and fun and easy. But what he felt for Prompto, it felt more deeply rooted than just a carefree tryst.

He sat up and crossed the distance between them with his hands. He pulled Prompto closer and he came willingly and laid his warm mouth over Noctis’. They moved as one, lowering themselves on the bed, Noctis on his back, Prompto over him. Noctis wanted to cry. He didn’t know why. Having Prompto over him, his mouth over his, entwined with him like they belonged like this, like they were meant to stay like this only, it made feelings that he’d never felt the equal of flow through him. He wanted more, he wanted it badly. Had wanted it for a long time, and it had hurt to think that Prompto didn’t want the same.

He clawed at Prompto’s clothes, tugged off his shirt and fumbled with his pants. Prompto had to let go of Noctis in order to help him get his pants off, but Noctis wouldn’t have it. He tugged Prompto back down and sealed his lips over his once again. Prompto chuckled.

“You have to let me go for a bit if you want my clothes off.”

Noctis shook his head. He tightened his grip around Prompto’s neck.

“Ah… Okay then…”

Prompto unhooked one arm from within Noctis’ embrace, wriggled a bit, fumbled, almost fell onto Noctis’ chest, and swore softly, but finally he’d managed to shimmy out of his pants and boxers.

He lowered himself down on top of Noctis again, buck naked, and Noctis realized there was a huge hole in his fool proof plan about never letting go of Prompto again; how was he supposed to get out of his own clothes?

Prompto grinned. “Finally realized the drawback?”

Noctis pouted and Prompto couldn’t resist kissing him. Thankfully, Noctis was just wearing sweats. He couldn’t stand those skin-tight _jeans_ that Prompto swore to. It felt like he was trying to cram himself into a plastic bag.

Prompto slipped the sweats off easily, together with Noctis’ boxers. He didn’t seem too concerned with the t-shirt, and neither was Noctis. Noctis moaned softly just at the feeling of Prompto’s fingers brushing his skin as he pulled his pants down. He opened his legs wide for Prompto to fit between them. He wanted him inside him, he wanted it so much he could hardly wait for another second.

And then, of course, Prompto had to ruin it all by saying, “I need to get the lube.”

Noctis let out a low-pitched, dissatisfied moan as Prompto drew away. His arms fell empty to the covers beneath him. He watched Prompto as he searched through his commode in the search for the lube that apparently was so dearly needed. It was much simpler with merpeople, Noctis though. You needed no preparation, no nothing. It was as simple with gays as with straights.

Prompto was out of breath when he returned. He placed a small tube next to Noctis’ head, along with a small, rectangular packet that Noctis examined with puzzlement.

“Condom,” Prompto explained. “To avoid spreading illnesses.”

‘Are you ill?’

Prompto shook his head. “I’ll explain later. Just trust me on this.”

Noctis waited impatiently while Prompto put the condom onto his cock and spread the lube over his fingers. Then he positioned those same fingers over Noctis’ ass. Noctis shrank back. Why did it seem like he was about to put his _fingers_ in there?

“C’mon, Noctis, don’t fight me on this right now,” Prompto bit out. “I’m trying to make it good for you. Just trust me.”

Noctis realized he had no other choice. He tried to relax as Prompto encircled his asshole with one slick, gentle finger. When he put it in, Noctis didn’t really feel much except a strange, intrusive sensation. He laid back, relaxed, and waited while Prompto slowly worked his protesting insides open. It was a strange feeling, to put it mildly, but Prompto repeatedly ensured him that it was how it was supposed to feel. Human sex really wasn’t all that much to long for, he concluded, but he did get some pleasure from knowing Prompto was enjoying it, although he couldn’t quite grasp how much pleasure he could get from using his fingers.

Noctis patted Prompto’s hair and drew it away from his forehead and kissed him instead of worrying about the dynamics of what was happening in his lower body. He felt Prompto’s fingers falter at intervals before he picked up again each time Noctis flicked his tongue in between his lips.

Prompto started introducing more fingers, and Noctis realized that this was just the beginning. Now the sensation was starting to become more familiar. The intrusive stretch was something he knew. But his asshole seemed to give more easily than he was used to, probably thanks to Prompto’s diligent fingers, and the lack of pain was making the pleasure so much more intense.

Noctis curled around Prompto. He was holding on for dear life. These sensations were different than he was used to. So much more jarring. Sharper, like they were piercing through him in their eagerness to tell his brain how good he was feeling. Prompto couldn’t move slowly enough, it was all-encompassing and intrusive no matter what… But in a good way, surprisingly.

Then Prompto pulled out his fingers, and Noctis started protesting before they were replaced with something even better. Prompto’s cock slid into him easily after all the preparation. Noctis just stared wide eyed up at him, his mouth half-open. Prompto gave him a small grin.

“Okay?”

Noctis nodded.

Prompto leant over Noctis, putting all his weight on his hands and all his power behind each thrust of his hips. His cock filled Noctis completely, continually. It reached deep into him, to a point where Noctis felt like it filled his entire lower body, pushing at every boundary inside him, filling him up and making him feel like he was about to burst in the best of ways. Prompto fucked him relentlessly, with hard, eager thrusts that rocked Noctis’ entire body. He was sure he couldn’t take more soon, that he’d explode into a myriad of little pieces of bliss, scattered on the wind.

It was almost painful how the pleasure built up but refused to topple over. Noctis groaned, a deep, guttural sound that reverberated through his body. He heard Prompto echo the sound.

“I’m close,” Prompto bit out.

Noctis wasn’t ready. He nearly whimpered out a broken moan. But then Prompto reached down between them, took Noctis’ cock in his hand, and that was it. Noctis was certain his body had shrunk down to one point, that he was collapsing on himself, and loving every second of it. He had screamed, he was sure of it. He certainly cried. He was shaking and he could still feel Prompto inside of him. It was too much.

Prompto must have realized how Noctis felt, because he pulled out, slowly, but it still jarred Noctis. And then he was out, leaving Noctis feeling empty. He basked in the afterglow, trying to get used to not being filled to bursting anymore, and was only partly aware that Prompto was bustling about next to him. Finally, Prompto settled down, pulled the covers over them both, and snuggled close to Noctis.

Prompto fell asleep immediately, his arms tight around Noctis.

Despite the heat from Prompto, Noctis felt even colder than before. The chill seemed to come from inside and spread slowly out to every limb, like a disease. He thought of the family and friends he would never see again, the salt of the sea that he would never taste again, and he wanted to cry. But his eyes were dry. He could swear there was a gaping wound in his chest. A wound not even Prompto could heal.

 


	10. In the Darkest Hour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter became too long, so I had to cut it. I'll post the rest tomorrow ^^

Noctis never seemed to recover after seeing his friend. That night, Prompto had barely glimpsed a sleek, pale man in the water next to the rock Noctis had been sitting on. From what little Prompto had been able to see of him, he could glean some of that same ethereal beauty that Noctis possessed. There was something wild and at the same time fragile about these merpeople. They looked feral with their sharp claws and wild looks, but their claws were only used for opening shells and they were anything but wild.

Prompto and Noctis slept in the same bed after that night, but even when Noctis was right there in his arms, it sometimes felt like he was eons away. Even when they had sex, Noctis could sometimes get that empty, closed off look in his eyes. Prompto tried his hardest to chase it away every time he saw it by making Noctis smile. It usually worked for a short while, but not long after his smile would be gone again, replaced by an empty stare.

Prompto understood why Noctis felt this way, he really did. He wished he could have stayed with him more than he already did, but he was working two jobs now, and barely saw Noctis anymore. He took him with him sometimes when he worked at the warehouse with Aranea, but his boss didn’t like it so he had to stop. He couldn’t take him with him to the restaurant where he worked either. First off, Noctis garnered too much attention at a restaurant with the way he sat barefooted and legs folded on his chair, and ate with his hands. Also, there would be too much there to distract him as he had a habit of throughout examining everything that caught his fancy, be it a person or an object.

Prompto wished there was something he could do except taking Noctis to the lake, but no matter what he said or did, there seemed to be no way of consoling Noctis.

The last few days he’d been remarkably quiet. Prompto couldn’t get a single smile from him, no matter what he tried. Then one night, Prompto woke up and found Noctis’ side of the bed empty. He searched through the apartment, but he wasn’t there. He looked outside, but he wasn’t nearby. Prompto got a bad feeling. Without going back to the apartment to get a jacket or better shoes, he ran off towards the place where he’d first met Noctis. Noctis would know the way there by himself now. As Prompto clambered over the rocky beach, stumbling and scraping up his hands and knees, he wished intently that Noctis hadn’t done what he feared he’d done. He hoped he caught up to him in time.

He hadn’t brought a flashlight, so he could barely see a thing. At first he thought there was nothing by the water but some large rocks. A combination of fear and relief jolted through him. Either Noctis wasn’t here and he’d been wrong, or he was already gone. But as he came closer, he saw Noctis sitting crouched by the edge of the water, staring intently out in the distance.

“Noctis!”

Noctis startled. He stood and stumbled, almost falling out in the water, but righted himself just in time. Prompto was so close to having him in his arms, safe from the dangers that lurked in the sea, but Noctis took a hasty step backwards. He lifted his hands and Prompto stopped. Noctis shook his head.

“You can’t do this,” Prompto said. His voice was shaking. “You can’t.”

He reached out and touched Noctis’ cheeks. They were wet.

“You know that it will be bad if you go back… It’s bad now, but… Give it some time, please.”

Noctis shook his head again. He grabbed both of Prompto’s arms, leaned in to give him a hard, desperate kiss, and then he darted off quicker than Prompto could react. He was standing in the water before Prompto had the time to stop him, and then he dove in and disappeared from sight.

“No!” Prompto ran out into the water. “No! Noctis! Come back!”

He waded out, farther and farther until his feet couldn’t touch the ground anymore, but he couldn’t see Noctis anywhere. Then he heard a gasp from behind him. He turned, and there Noctis was, coming up for air.

“You didn’t turn!”

Noctis swam closer.

“Does this mean the spell didn’t work?”

Noctis shook his head. He put his arms around Prompto and Prompto leant his forehead against the side of Noctis’ head.

“Maybe we should get back to land before something snatches you?”

Noctis shook his head again.

Prompto pressed a kiss to his temple and breathed in the salty sea smell that clung to him. It seemed right, somehow, that Noctis smelled like the ocean.

“I know you belong to the ocean…” He whispered. “And I don’t really know much about what awaits you there, but I always guessed it was bad. Are you gonna… die?”  
Noctis shook his head. Then he paused. He shrugged.

“You don’t know…” Prompto muttered. He bit back tears. “Okay… That’s reassuring.”

They floated in the water for a long time. Prompto could feel Noctis change but he didn’t release him from his arms. Noctis had already taken off his clothes, so Prompto could feel his skin steadily become more and more rough and hard under his palms. He felt the dorsal fin poke at his arm and at last he had to give way for it. Noctis became colder. It felt like Prompto was witnessing the life flow out of his beloved. Hadn’t Noctis moved steadily to stay afloat, he would have been sure that he was holding a dead body in his arms.

At last Noctis ducked lower into the water, his fins brushed over Prompto’s legs as his tail moved steadily back and forth. He came back up after taking a gulp of water and released a sigh, like he’d finally tasted fresh water after days in the desert. Prompto held him tighter.

“I love you.”

Noctis caressed the nape of Prompto’s neck carefully with his claws.

He tried to speak, but couldn’t. He lifted one hand to his throat and made a coughing, choked sound. The sun had started rising, so Prompto could see Noctis clearly now. A black pattern had appeared around his neck, like a collar. Noctis clawed at it. He made another choked sound. Prompto despaired.

“What’s happening?! Can’t you breathe?”

Noctis shook his head, then he nodded. He tried to calm down and took a few, deep breaths. So at least he could breathe.

“What is that?” Prompto said and touched Noctis’ throat.

Noctis shook his head. He pointed at his throat and opened his mouth. Not a sound came out. He shook his head.

“You still can’t talk?”

Noctis shook his head again. Had he been human, Prompto was sure he would be at the verge of tears, but it seemed merpeople couldn’t cry.

“It’ll be all right,” Prompto said shakily and caressed Noctis’ cheek. He couldn’t even believe his own words so he wasn’t sure if Noctis would believe him, but at least he seemed a little calmer.

“Someone should have taught you kids not to play with magic,” a soft, teasing voice said.

Prompto looked towards the shore, certain that someone was talking to them from there, but the voice was closer. He spun around. A man had appeared out of the water right behind him. There was something unsettling in the crooked grin he wore. A sharpened canine was visible behind his upper lip. But the most disturbing thing was his eyes. What should have been white, was black, and his irises were bright yellow.

“So this is the fortunate human boy. Or, unfortunate, as it is.”

Prompto grabbed Noctis and swam away from the man.

“W-who are you?”

“How rude of me. I’m Ardyn, otherwise known as the sea witch.”

“… the witch? You… You’re the one who cursed him!”

“Oh, I wouldn’t put it so harshly. As a matter of fact, I gave him exactly what he wanted and without taking paid, at that. It’s not my fault he couldn’t handle it.”

Ardyn swam closer, and Prompto moved further away.

“Don’t touch him!”

Ardyn just chuckled. “I don’t need to. He’s bound to me now. He’ll do as I bid him to.”

Noctis let out a choked cry before he shoved Prompto away and dove under the waves.

“So long, little human,” Ardyn said, and then he disappeared under the water without making a single ripple.

Prompto dove in after them. It was possible for him to see far in the clear water and he spotted Noctis and Ardyn immediately. They hadn’t gotten far away. Noctis tried to fight Ardyn. He wriggled out of his grip when he grabbed his arm, and hit him with his tail, but to no use. Ardyn just watched his efforts with that same, careless grin. Prompto saw the witch’s lower body for the first time, and suddenly he remembered what Noctis had said about an octopus. He hadn’t really known what to think at the time, seeing as octopuses normally weren’t so big as to be a threat, but now it all fell into place.

Although he had a feeling that he would have no chance against those eight tentacles, he wasn’t about to give up. He couldn’t give up. He managed to come close enough to grab hold of Noctis’ arm to the surprise of both Ardyn and Noctis, and tried to haul him with him upwards. Noctis shook his head.   
‘No! Let go!’

Ardyn didn’t move to restrain Prompto. Prompto didn’t know why, but he didn’t care as long as it gave him time to get Noctis away from him. Noctis felt heavier and heavier the closer to the surface they came. He wasn’t helping Prompto getting them up there, he just hung in his arms like a sack of potatoes. When Prompto looked at him, he kept begging him to let go. Prompto shook his head. He would never let go of Noctis. Never.

Even when his sight started getting blurry and his lungs hurt like they were going to burst, he didn’t let go of Noctis. He held onto him, even when they both became too heavy for him to carry, even when they started sinking. He held onto Noctis until his sight blacked out and his head went calm like the water around them. Calm and dark and quiet.

 

\-----

 

Noctis felt numb. He sunk like a stone, Prompto cradled in his arms. He was unable to move of his own free will. Ardyn’s magic paralyzed him. The mark around his neck hurt. It felt like it became tighter by the minute, crushing down on his gills, but unmercifully still letting him breathe. The sun floated slowly farther and farther away, and the surroundings became duller and duller.

A shadow obscured his sight. Ardyn appeared in front of him. For once, his perpetual grin was wiped from his face. He looked livid.

“Your human friend might have broken the dark spell with this chivalrous sacrifice, but you will never have him back.” Ardyn’s grin was all teeth and held no humor, just needle sharp hatred. “I hope you’ll never recover from this loss, little prince. I hope you wither away in grief, and your father with you.”

With that, Ardyn swam away into the darkness.

Noctis barely heard him. He clutched Prompto’s lifeless body. What had Ardyn meant…? The spell was broken? He clutched his throat. The awful pull was gone, and the burning feeling with it. He was free! But Prompto… Air! Noctis thought foggily. Prompto needed air! Noctis just needed to get to the surface, quickly!

He shot towards the surface, towards the light, when two eels came at him out of nowhere. They were half Noctis size and together they were big enough to interrupt him. One bit Noctis’ tail and the other bit Prompto’s arm and pulled him away. Noctis cried out in pain. He had no time for this! He twisted around and managed to free himself from the eels jaws. Then he abruptly spun back, smacking the eel with his tail so that it tumbled through the water. He darted after the other eel, grabbed its tail and twisted it so that it had to let go of Prompto. Then he shoved it off to the side. He grabbed Prompto and used his Armiger. A sword appeared in his hand. He swam off towards the surface and the eels let him be, knowing full well how a meeting with Noctis’ sword would turn out.

Noctis broke the surface and pulled Prompto up so that his head was over water.

“Breathe!” Noctis begged. “Breathe!”

Please, please, please… Please open your eyes. Look at me with those warm, bright eyes of yours. Please.

Prompto’s eyes remained closed. His skin was getting cold. Noctis clutched him tight.

“I was the one supposed to die,” he whispered. “Not you.”

Not even trying to pump the water out of his lungs helped. Prompto remained lifeless and heavy, his weight dragging Noctis down. The sea around them was deserted. The sky was blue. There wasn’t a cloud in sight. Somewhere Noctis heard the cry from a seagull and it reminded him of Prompto’s apartment. Prompto always complained that the seagulls kept him up at night.

Noctis screamed. He screamed till he was hoarse. Nothing around him echoed it. Nothing moved. Everything was dead quiet. He let himself sink, let Prompto’s weight pull him down. He placed one last kiss on his cold lips.

“I love you too.”

 

\-----

 

It was Regis who found them. He had kept an eye out for the sea witch and when someone had reported that they’d seen him, he had hurried off in that direction. What he found instead was his beloved son clutching a merman Regis had never seen before. The boy was slender and fair. His tail was colored in translucent swirls of blue and warm peach, and his dorsal fin had almost the same color as his shimmering white and rosy scales.

Together they made a startling contrast. Both of them were asleep but Noctis woke up when Regis came nearer. He looked at the man in his arm with confusion, and then up at Regis.

“Dad…”

He looked down at his friend again.

“What… What happened to him?”

“Who is this?” Regis asked.

He swam closer. He wanted to give his son a hug, but they’d never been the hugging types and Noctis was too distracted by this stranger.

“It’s… He was…” Noctis’ hands ghosted over the man’s pale face as though he was afraid that he’d disappear when he touched him. “He’s alive…” he said softly. A shaky grin spread on his face. He looked up at Regis again. “He’s alive!”

Regis felt nothing but confusion. Suddenly Noctis swam right into his arms and hugged him tight.

“Dad, I’m so sorry…! I’ve missed you so much!”

Regis placed his arms around Noctis and pressed his cheek to his hair.

“It’s okay, Noctis,” he murmured. “I’m sorry too. This would never have happened if I had put more trust in you.”

Noctis broke away from the embrace far too soon. He swam back to the sleeping merman who was now starting to wake up.

The man stared up at Noctis.

“Noct?”

Noctis grinned. “Hi.”

The man continued staring, this time in disbelief. “You can speak!”

Noctis chuckled.

“You can laugh!”

The man moved to get up… and propelled forward and right into Noctis as though he’d never used his tail before. He looked utterly confused. Then he looked down at himself… and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. He touched his neck and his face, stared at his clawed fingers, then he stared at Noctis, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. Noctis looked just as puzzled. He looked at Regis, and now the other merman noticed him too. He startled.

“What the fuck… We're under water?!” He looked around himself, and swam in an unsteady circle. He then stared in fascination at his tail as it passed by his face.

“Who is this?” Regis asked again.

“This is Prompto,” Noctis said. “He… uh… he used to be human. He took care of me when I was in the top-world.”

Regis watched the new merman – Prompto – with different eyes.

“He doesn’t happen to be the same human you left the sea for?”

Noctis looked slightly guilty. “He does.”

They both stared at Prompto as he tried to stay upright in the water.

“This tail is impossible to steer,” Prompto muttered.

“You’ll get the hang of it,” Noctis said easily.

“Will I stay this way forever? What happened? Did Ardyn turn me?”

At Ardyn’s name, both Regis and Noctis stiffened, Noctis with a queasy look on his face, Regis in anger.

“I don’t think so,” Noctis said. “Prompto… I think you… I was convinced that you died.”

“Well… I'm not dead. I mean, I’m here right now…”

Noctis looked at Regis.

“He grew cold in my arms,” he said. “He wasn’t breathing… And now he’s like this.”

Regis had heard of something like this before. The stories he’d heard sounded impossible, but the proof that it could happen swam right before him.

“If you really died, Prompto,” Regis said, “and this isn’t one of Ardyn’s tricks, then something extraordinary has taken place. It happens, though rarely, that some humans turn if they die at sea. As a matter of fact, it is said that that’s how our people first came to be.”

“I never knew that,” Noctis said.

“It is a very unusual occurrence. It is said that only the purest of hearts holding the deepest, most honest love can set off such a transformation.”

The two young men exchanged bashful glances.

“Ardyn did say something about Prompto’s sacrifice breaking the dark spell that bound me to him.”

Regis looked at the human turned merman with higher regard now.

“You sacrificed yourself for my son?”

Prompto looked astounded. “I-I don’t know if I sacrificed myself, I just… I just wanted to get him away from Ardyn and…”

He and Noctis looked into each other’s eyes. Regis felt like this was a moment that he didn’t want to intrude on.

“I’ll go ahead to the palace,” he said. “To let everyone know you’re coming.”

Noctis grabbed Regis’ hand. 

“Thank you, dad. For understanding.” His smile trembled with emotion. “I love you.”

While Noctis had been gone, Regis had every day regretted how he never told his son how much he loved him. He brought Noctis into a firm hug.

“I love you too, Noctis. So much.”

 


	11. New Dreams

After Regis had left, Noctis and Prompto grew quiet. They looked at each other with shy smiles.

“Your dad is really cool,” Prompto said. “And kinda menacing.”

Noctis chuckled. “You think so? He’s actually the sweetest person, at least when he’s not trying to force me to stay at home.”

“But he was big, and had much longer claws than you, and wilder hair.”

“Just wait till you see Gladio, then.”

Prompto suddenly grinned as brightly as the sun, and swam clumsily over to grab Noctis’ arm. 

“Do you get what this means? All this?” He gestured to the water around them. Noctis looked around, befuddled.

“Um… The sea?”

“No, stupid! We can finally talk! You can finally tell me all about yourself!”

“Oh! Yeah, you’re right. Though, there isn’t much to say.”

“I want to hear every detail,” Prompto insisted.

“Okay, then I guess we should head back to the palace first because if you want every detail of my entire life, we’re gonna stay here till we get old.”

Noctis led the way. For Prompto’s sake he swam more slowly than he normally would. He reached out and grabbed Prompto’s hand, and they exchanged blushing looks like they were kids with their first crush.

“It feels like I have to get to know you anew,” Prompto said. “It’s weird… It’s like you’re a different person now that I know your voice and you aren’t acting like a curious child who has to dissect everything you come by.”

Noctis snorted. “You’re the curious child now.”

Prompto suddenly looked a little paler. His smile wavered a bit.

“What is it?” Noctis asked.

“I just realized that I’m technically dead… and…”

Suddenly he looked a bit panicked. He stopped swimming.

Noctis held his hand tighter. “Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah, I’m just… I came to think of my friends… Well, that’s only Aranea, plus Cid and Cindy at the garage, but still… I always used to feel so miserable in my life. I thought I didn’t belong anywhere and that no one liked me… But I did have friends, and now those friends are gonna miss me. They’re gonna worry. They’re gonna think I’m dead.”

Prompto looked so utterly lost that Noctis didn’t know what to do other than to hug him.

“I’m sorry,” Noctis whispered.

Prompto hugged him back. “Don’t be. I chose this myself, although I didn’t know it at the moment.”

“It was my fault,” Noctis said. “I’m really sorry, Prompto. I should have stayed with you, but I couldn’t bear it any longer… It just… It seemed like I had no choice at the time.”

Prompto held him in front of himself and looked deeply into his eyes.

“Don’t blame yourself,” he said sternly. “I totally understand. If I knew that my family was waiting for me somewhere, like in a different country or something, I would have wanted to go to them too. If I could bring them back… You have no idea how many times I’ve wished I could do that. So believe me when I say that I understand.”

Noctis hugged Prompto again. He caressed Prompto’s dorsal fin and Prompto shivered slightly. When he looked over Prompto’s shoulder he caught sight of a dark heap a little away from them.

He gasped.

Prompto startled. “What is it?”

“Nothing, I just… I just realized that the metal husks are _cars_.”

He pointed towards the rusted heap. Prompto swam closer.

“Careful,” Noctis said. “There are sharp parts here.”

“Metal husks,” Prompto said. “You have funny words for human things.”

“What was I supposed to call them?”

Prompto shrugged. “Awesome human inventions?”

“More like awesome heap of trash littering the ocean floor.”

Prompto chuckled. “Touché.”

A voice called from the distance. “Noctis!”

Noctis spun around. Ignis and Gladio were racing towards them like they were attending to an emergency. Noctis hurried to meet them. Ignis reached him first and pulled him into a crushing hug.

“I thought I’d never see you again.”

Noctis held him just as tight.

Gladio appeared next to them and joined the hug. He crushed the both of them to his chest. When Ignis finally let go, Gladio grabbed Noctis’ shoulders and shook him.

“How could you do something so stupid?” His jaw was clenched in a way that Noctis recognized as his I’m-trying-not-to-get-too-emotional face. He gave in and hugged Noctis again. “Never do something like that again.”

“I hope dad didn’t give you a hard time,” Noctis said.

“I would have deserved anything he could have punished me with, but he didn’t take it out on me at all.”

“Who are you?” Ignis asked Prompto.

“Hi! I’m Prompto, Noctis’… uh…”

“Boyfriend,” Noctis said. “He’s my boyfriend.”

Prompto’s cheeks turned bright pink.

“I feel like there’s something familiar about you,” Ignis said.

Like all merpeople he had excellent eyesight. He had probably seen Prompto at the shore when Noctis met him under the full moon.

Noctis explained who Prompto was and how he’d ended up like a merman while they made their way to the palace. Ignis and Gladio looked astonished in the wake of the explanation.

“I have heard of such a thing,” Ignis said. “But I never thought it was true.”

“I thought it was just a myth,” Gladio said.

“I’ve never heard it mentioned even once,” Noctis said.

Ignis sighed. “I’ve probably mentioned it to you a thousand times. It’s a big part of the merpeople’s creation history.”

“Figures I forgot it then, since it was part of my history lessons.”

Gladio chuckled.

They swam across the coral reef and continued downwards, until the light became dark blue. Then the ocean floor suddenly plunged into darkness; they were at the edge of a steep cliff. Prompto clutched Noctis arm and stared into the darkness with wide eyes. 

“You won’t fall in,” Noctis said.

“I – I’m not scared,” Prompto said. “But… We’re not going in there, right?”

“No.”

They took off to the side and followed the edge of the cliff where it sloped gently downwards. At last they saw the coral spires that marked the location of their palace. They swam around the side to the front, where corals clung to the ocean floor, and swam downwards alongside a sloping cliff side riddled with caves of all sizes. A flock of mermen and mermaids came out to meet them. They hugged and touched Noctis, and expressed their joy at his safe return. From the midst of the flock, Regis swam towards them and guided them towards the main cave which opening was framed by various glowing corals. The cave was connected through tunnels to all the other caves. Everyone assembled there. A feast was presented to them and Noctis and Prompto ate like they were starved.

“I never thought I’d enjoy raw scallops,” Prompto whispered to Noctis, “But it’s actually _really_ good.”

After the feast they rested and talked. Prompto got the shock of his life when he realized that Noctis was the prince.

“Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“I wasn’t entirely sure how to incorporate it into my impressive sign-language vocabulary.”

“Huh… Yeah, okay, so maybe that wasn’t so easy to convey, but…”

“Does it matter?”

Prompto looked over to Regis, who was conversing with his closest circle of friends. Then he looked back to Noctis.

“I should ask you that: does it?”

Noctis wasn’t sure what Prompto meant.

“Why would it matter?”

“It’s just that… I’m just an ordinary person, I don’t have any titles or anything.”

Noctis shrugged. “That doesn’t matter to me. And if you’re worried about what my dad would say, I can tell you right now that he wouldn’t care. My mother wasn’t royalty.”

Prompto leaned back, visibly more relaxed.

“Okay. That’s good.”

“Our society is a little too small for us to care about that kind of thing.”

Ignis and Gladio came over and settled next to Noctis and Prompto. Noctis felt as content and happy as he ever could remember being. He was home again and he even got to bring Prompto with him. Prompto didn’t seem as uncomfortable with this new world as Noctis had been when he came to the top-world. He actually looked like he was enjoying himself now that he had gotten more used to it.

“Um… There’s one thing I’ve been wondering about,” Prompto said around a yawn. It was getting late and they were all getting a bit tired, but no one wanted to go to bed just yet. “How come I can understand what you guys are saying? And speak your language?”

Noctis looked at Ignis, expecting him to explain. Ignis just shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“That’s a first,” Gladio said with a teasing grin.

Ignis just sighed. “I don’t know much about magic. It seems like you have transformed into a full-fledged merman, mind and body.”

“Thankfully,” Noctis said. “It’s nice that none of us needs to use sign language all the time.”

“I must have adopted merman tastes too,” Prompto said, “Because I really like the thought of eating raw scallops and clams.” He grimaced. “I’m trying to tell myself it’s gross, but I can’t convince myself.”

“How do you normally eat them, then?” Gladio asked.

Noctis sighed. “Don’t ask. It would take a hundred years of explanation before you understood the dynamics of that world, and even then you would find it utterly bizarre.”

“Thanks a lot,” Prompto said, but then he added. “You’re right, though.”

 

\-----

 

That night, Prompto slept in Noctis’ room. It was a cozy room despite being inside a cave on the bottom of the sea. Glowing corals covered the walls and there was soft sand on the floor. Along the walls, on natural shelves, stood dozens of objects. There were several glass jars, green with age-old dirt, and twisted and rusted parts of human objects alongside conchs and beautiful iridescent shells.

“It’s strange,” Noctis said. “It feels like I’ve been away for years, not months. All these things that I used to collect… It seems like a childish pastime now that I know how mundane they actually are.”

He picked up the iron base of a table lamp. A small part of the cord was still attached to it.

“I used to wonder what this was used for. I invented adventurous and mystical stories about its origin. But now I know that it’s just an ordinary lamp. It’s not even a nice lamp.”

“Sorry your dreams had to be crushed,” Prompto said.

“I always thought coming to the top-world would be like walking into an enchanting and beautiful world. I was so wrong.”

“On the whole it’s a shitty place,” Prompto said. “I guess it has its perks, but… To be honest, it’s polluted, and the system is completely fucked up with a few rich people controlling everything, and no one cares about each other anymore...” He sighed. “I have a feeling I’m not gonna miss it much.”

Noctis felt calmed by those words. 

“Being above the surface felt like being in a cage,” he said. “But, like an inverted cage. It was too much space and at the same time, so many restrictions.”

Noctis straightened out vertically in the water and held himself afloat while he laid down.

Prompto tried to do the same, without much luck. He just ended up slowly toppling over.

“How do you do that?”

“I don’t know… I just keep moving without thinking about it, even when I rest.”

Prompto anchored himself to Noctis and that way he managed to keep afloat.

“What about lying down on the floor?”

“I’ve never done that,” Noctis said. “Seems uncomfortable.”

“I guess so.”

Noctis turned towards Prompto, and Prompto faced him. Noctis was watching him with an expectant expression. His hand brushed over Prompto’s stomach. Then it dropped lower. As his fingertips grazed the front of Prompto’s tail where his crotch would have normally been, Prompto realized he was very sensitive there.

“Wanna try merman sex?” Noctis said with a teasing smile.

Prompto felt a pleasant jolt go through him at Noctis’ words. Noctis fingers continued to caress that pleasant spot with sure, skilled movements. Warmth spread through Prompto and pooled in the pit of his stomach. He felt a familiar pressure in his groin-region, and when he looked down he saw that where there before had been flat, soft scales, there was now protruding an erection.

It was almost absurd to suddenly have an extra appendage where seconds before there had been none. Noctis didn’t seem to find it absurd at all. He was looking at Prompto’s rising erection with warm desire in his eyes, and Prompto realized that he was much in the same predicament. It looked different on Noctis. Natural. Enticing.

He cupped Noctis’ cheek and lifted his chin so that he could meet his beautiful blue eyes. He kissed him tenderly, letting his lips linger before he deepened the kiss. They rolled slowly around in the water with their tails curled around each other, rubbing their sensitive undersides together. 

Noctis guided Prompto’s cock towards a small opening right beneath his own cock.

“Shouldn’t you prepare?” Prompto said.

“It’s okay,” Noctis said. “Just push inside. It’s fine.”

Prompto wished Noctis could give him a step-by-step explanation because this was all too new for him, but it turned out he didn’t need to. His body acted on instinct. Instead of thrusting, he slowly pushed as deep into Noctis as he could go. He groaned and clutched Noctis to his chest. Noctis knew to take advantage of how sensitive Prompto’s tail was. His tail caressed Prompto’s in just the right spots for each languid movement they made as they slowly moved together.

“Are you sure this is good for you?” Prompto asked.

Noctis didn’t show any sings of visible pleasure.

“In a bit it will be. Move your body with mine.”

Noctis started gyrating his body in gentle waves, much like he’d tried to do when he was courting Prompto in the lake. Prompto caught on fast. It was like his body just fell into a natural rhythm. Noctis steadied him if he became a little uncoordinated, and slowly, as they moved together, he felt something pleasant, almost like a gentle tickle, grow to life inside him.

Noctis was watching him and smiled when Prompto caught his eyes. The undersides of their tails brushed together in an even, soft rhythm, and that, as much as the stimulation of his cock, made the pleasure rise slowly, slowly, until it was like a sweet, gentle blanket of bliss encompassing him from head to tail-tip. The building pleasure licked through him less like a wildfire, as he was used to, and more like the continuous wash of waves against a shore.

All he was aware of was Noctis’ warm body pressed close to his, his hands that caressed Prompto’s back, his tail that curled around him, rubbing up and down. At one point it felt like they were suspended in time, the only movement being the gentle undulation of their bodies as they moved to keep afloat, and yet the pleasure increased. And then he came. The orgasm washed over him with the same gradual feeling as the build up, only quicker. It whited out his entire being, leaving just a soft buzz in his head together with the ever-vigilant knowledge of Noctis’ presence.

Noctis pressed his forehead to Prompto’s.

“What do you think?” he said as he regained his breath.

“Mm?”

Prompto could barely form coherent words.

“About merman sex. How was it?”

Prompto sighed contently. “It was great.”

He kissed Noctis again.

“It was perfect.”

“Do you think you’re gonna be alright here?” Noctis whispered.

Prompto smiled. “I know it.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading and following this fic! I'm really grateful for all the encouraging and nice comments, and for every kudos!


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